- 


LIBRARY 

OF    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2008  witii  funding  from 

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littp://www.arcliive.org/details/capitallaborOOcliicrich 


CAPITAL 

and 

LABOR 


BY   A 


BLACK  -  LISTED 
MACHINIST 


GENERAL' 


CAPITAL    AND 
LABOR 


BY  A 

BLACK-LISTED   MACHINIST 


>I36 


I     i 


COPYRIGHT,  1902,  BY 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY, 
CHICAGO. 


PREFACE. 

Few  books  have  an  origin  and  history  hke  this 
one.  It  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  com- 
bined note-book  and  scrap-book  of  a  SociaHst 
workingman. 

BLickHsted  and  searching  with  bitter  experi- 
ences for  a  market  in  which  to  dispose  of  his  la- 
bor-power, then  toiling  long  hours  at  the  most 
exhausting  labor  when  that  market  was  found,  he 
learned  the  philosophy  of  Socialism  at  a  school 
whose  lessons  make  lasting  and  vivid  impressions. 
Co-operating  with  events  in  the  work  of  teaching 
these  lessons  there  were  certain  things  that  he 
read  or  heard  spoken. 

\Mien  he  came  to  see  the  truth  of  the  Socialist 
position,  he  saw  that  the  only  way  to  escape  from 
the  life  in  which  capitalism  doomed  him  to  live 
was  by  helping  other  working  men  to  see  the 
same  truths.    Hence  this  book. 

It  is  a  record  of  the  things  which  made  him  a 
Socialist,  and  of  the  things  which  he  found  most 
effective  in  teaching  his  fellow-workers  to  become 
Socialists.  Along  with  these  things  he  has  put 
the  arguments  and  thoughts  which  arose  from  his 
experience  as  laborer  and  Socialist  agitator. 
Under  these  conditions  it  is  manifestly  impos- 


117 


6  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

sible  to  give  credit  for  all  the  material  taken  from 
other  writers.  Many  times,  indeed,  the  wording 
has  been  vastly  changed  while  the  substance  still 
remains.  The  writer  has  simply  taken  from  the 
vast  storehouse  of  Socialist  literature  the  weapons 
he  needed,  forging  them  into  such  new  forms  as 
would  best  suit  his  purpose,  even  as  he  was  ac- 
customed to  forging  the  steel  with  which  he  works 
in  his  daily  tasks. 

Having  gathered  together  the  material  in  this 
manner  he  then  worked  at  his  trade  to  earn  the 
money  necessary  to  put  it  before  the  world.  Now 
it  is  sent  forth  to  do  its  work  as  best  it  may.  He 
dare  not  sign  his  name  lest  he  be  once  more  set 
adrift  from  his  slavery  into  a  freedom  that  leaves 
him  only  free  to  starve. 

Such  a  book,  gathered,  published  and  sent  forth 
in  this  manner,  should  certainly  not  be  without  ef- 
fect upon  the  class  for  whom  it  was  writen.  It 
should  challenge  the  attention  of  every  producer 
of  wealth,  and  I  believe  its  reading  will  compel 
him  to  see  that  his  place  is  beside  the  author  and 
the  millions  of  other  workingmen  who  are  seek- 
ing to  hasten  the  progress  of  social  evolution  to- 
ward the  time  when  the  conditions  portrayed  in 
this  book  and  endured  by  the  writer  and  his  class 
shall  have  forever  passed  away. 

A.  M.  Simons. 


CONTENTS. 


Genius  and  Profit   9 

Nothing  Succeeds  Like  Success 10 

Chauncey  M.  Depew  Wants  to  Expand 12 

Depew's  Prosperity  18 

A  Startling  Array  of  Facts 21 

Civilization   22 

Combine  Against  the  Government  23 

To  Mr.  Roosevelt  25 

A  History -making  Term 29 

What  Do  They  Offer  Hhn  In  Return ? 31 

As  to  the  Flag  32 

How  the  People  Are  Outraged  and  Robbed  33 

Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York,  on  the  "Rich  and  Poor" 37 

How  Capitalism  Redeems  its  Pre-election  Promises 42 

No  Hope  for  the  Traveling  Men  45 

Victims  of  Trusts 46 

Sketch  of  the  Hellish  Conditions  Prevailing  in  the  Coal 

Regions  of  Pennsylvania 50 

The  Capitalistic  Law  of  "Natural  Selection"  in  Its  Rela- 
tion to  the  Labor  Market 56 

Capitalism  Decides  the  Fate  of  the  Man  Over  Forty 58 

A  Tale  Told  by  a  Victim 64 

The  Curse  of  Profit 67 

Have  We  Too  Much?  68 

"Am  I  My  Brother's  Keeper?"  72 

Capital  Against  Labor  75 

Co-operation   79 

The  Capitalist  and  His  Specific  80 

This  World  of  Ours 84 


8  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

Democracy  Exposed 94 

We  Should  Govern,  Not  Our  Ancestors 97 

Our  Manifest  Destiny 103 

What  Is  Labor's  Share  107 

Benevolent  Philanthropists   Ill 

Experience  Teaches 113 

Railroad  Experiments   118 

Machine  vs.  Man  119 

The  Worker's  Ten  Commandments 124 

Organization  the  First  Expression  of  Intelligence 126 

The  Union  Label :    Its  Use  and  Significance 131 

Attacks  the  Union 132 

India's  Dark  Picture  135 

Profit  Regardless  of  Results 136 

A  Soldier's  Pen  Picture  of  Life  in  the  Philippines 137 

"Can't  Change  Human  Nature" 142 

"A  Fable" 144 

The  Rays  of  Socialism 145 

Why  American  Workingmen  Should  Be  Socialists 148 

Poverty  and  Its  Cure,  as  Viewed  from  the  Standpoint  of 

a  Socialist  158 

Wage  System  and  Slavery 164 

The  Church  and  the  Workingman 176 

Religion  and  Churches 183 

The  New  Religion 187 

A  Question  for  the  Prohibitionists  to  Consider 190 

Slavery  193 

An  Invitation    196 

What  Can  I  Do  for  the  Cause 202 


CAPITAL  AND  LABOR. 

^ ry 

GENIUS  AND  PROFKE!*l£-!lii!^^ 

Genius  has  always  served  the  world  without 
mercenary  incentive.  Says  Robert  Blatchford : 
*'If  a  prize  is  offered  for  a  new  machine,  will  a 
man  of  no  genius  make  it  ?  No.  He  will  try  for 
the  sake  of  the  prize,  but  he  will  fail  for  the  lack 
of  brains.  But  no  prize  being  offered,  will  the 
man  of  genius,  seeing  the  need  of  a  new  ma- 
chine, invent  it  ?  He  will.  History  proves  that  he 
will  invent  and  does  invent  it,  not  only  without 
hope  of  gain  but  even  at  risk  of  life  and  liberty. 
It  seems  then  that  genius,  without  mercenary  in- 
centive, will  serve  the  world ;  but  that  mercenary 
motives  without  genius  will  not." 

Under  Socialism  will  genius  serve  the  world 
without  mercenary  motive  ?  Most  certainly  it  will, 
and  more  completely  than  it  does  to-day,  for  the 
reasons  already  mentioned,  and  further  because 
Socialism  wdll  be  favorable  to  the  development  of 
geniuses.  For  every  ray  of  genius  developed  to- 
day a  wealth  of  capacity  is  stifled.  We  find  men 
liberally  endowed  among  the  very  dregs  of  socie- 
ty. Socialism  would  secure  to  all  the  opportunity 
for  the  full  development  of  their  latent  powers. 
Surround  men  with  a  suitable  environment  and 
genius  will  go  forward  by  leaps  and  bounds. 

With  this  development  would  come  increased 
inventions — a  new  era  of  mechanical  improve- 


10  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

ments  would  dawn.  Socialism  would  substitute 
machines  for  men  in  every  department  of  produc- 
tion. 

NOTHING  SUCCEEDS  LIKE  SUCCESS. 

The  task  of  the  reformer  is  a  difficult  and 
thankless  one.  The  pioneers  of  every  movement 
begun  in  the  interest  of  humanity  have  met  oppo- 
sition from  all  quarters,  including  those  in  whose 
behalf  the  reform  was  demanded.  People  as  a 
rule  are  wedded  to  custom  and  are  slow  to  com- 
prehend the  necessity  for  change.  But  once  the 
reform  idea  has  been  realized,  none  are  so  loud 
in  its  praises,  or  so  ready  to  avail  themselves  of 
its  advantages,  or  even  to  credit  themselves  with 
having  helped  to  bring  it  about,  as  some  of  those 
who  were  its  opponents  from  the  beginning.  The 
movement  to  abolish  negro  slavery  in  this  coun- 
try illustrates  this  fact.  The  little  band  of  anti- 
slavery  agitators  were  ridiculed  and  abused  on  all 
sides  for  attempting  to  overthrow  a  system  that 
was  upheld  up  the  constitution,  sanctioned  by  the 
churches  and  endorsed  by  a  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

In  spite  of  opposition  the  reform  idea 
prevailed,  and  to-day  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery is  rightly  regarded  as  the  greatest 
achievement  in  our  history.  No  one  would  now 
dare  to  advocate  a  return  to  the  old  system.  So 
has  it  been  with  the  ideas  advanced  in  the  labor 
movement.  In  the  various  stages  of  its  progress 
one  reform  after  another  has  been  secured  only 
through  aggressive  and  persistent  agitation,  yet 


NOTHING  SUCCEEDS  LIKE  SUCCESS  II 

no  one  would  now  suggest  the  surrender  of  any 
of  the  ground  gained.  No  labor  reform  idea  met 
with  stronger  opposition  than  the  one  to  reduce 
the  hours  of  labor.  But  repeated  reductions  have 
been  made,  and  the  individual  who  would  now 
seek  a  return  to  the  longer  work-day  would  be 
considered  crazy.  Wq  remember  the  time  when 
a  labor  union,  if  noticed  at  all,  was  looked  upon 
with  derision.  To-day  it  commands  respect. 
Where,  but  a  few  years  ago,  there  were  in  this 
country  but  a  small  number  of  national  trade- 
unions,  some  of  them  of  doubtful  stability,  hun- 
dreds of  strong  national  unions  are  affiliated  with 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  the  great 
labor  army,  which  has  become  a  power  which  can- 
not be  ignored.  The  unions  overcame  opposition. 
Success  won  supporters  for  their  cause. 

But  the  task  of  the  trade-union  is  far  from  be- 
ing ended.  On  the  contrary  it  has  scarcely  be- 
gun. The  rapid  changes  that  constantly  take 
place  in  our  methods  of  production  requires  con- 
tinued efforts  on  the  part  of  the  unions  to  main- 
tain the  rights  of  their  members.  Looking  back 
over  the  marvelous  hundred  years  that  have 
passed  away  forever  you  cannot  but  wonder  what 
the  new  century  will  bring.  Well,  as  you  sow,  so 
shall  you  reap.  \\q  know  that  the  world  will 
be  nearer  the  great  scheme  of  International  unifi- 
cation, as  the  trusts  are  slowly  evolving  in  cycle 
motion  with  Father  Time.  The  curtain  has  just 
rung  down  on  the  greatest  century  since  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world.  The  twentieth  century  is  ush- 
ering in  a  new  play  and  America  is  the  stage. 


CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW  WANTS  TO  EX- 
PAND. 

Senator  Depew,  the  silver-tongued  orator  of 
the  RepubHcan  party,  in  his  speech  in  the  Phila- 
delphia convention,  said :  "What  is  the  tendency 
of  the  future  ?  Why  this  hammering  at  the  gates 
of  Pekin?  Why  this  marching  of  troops  from 
Asia  to  Africa  ?  Why  this  parade  of  people  from 
other  empires  and  other  lands  ?  It  is  because  the 
surplus  productions  of  the  civilized  countries  of 
modern  times  are  greater  than  civilization  can 
consume.  It  is  because  the  over-production  goes 
back  to  stagnation  and  poverty.  The  American 
people  now  produce  $2,000,000,000  worth  more 
than  they  can  consume,  and  we  met  the  emergen- 
cy, and,  by  the  providence  of  God,  by  the  states- 
manship of  William  McKinley,  and  by  the  valor 
of  Roosevelt  and  his  associates,  we  have  our  mar- 
ket in  Cuba,  we  have  our  market  in  Puerto  Rico, 
we  have  our  market  in  Hawaii,  we  have  our  mar- 
ket in  the  Philippines,  and  we  stand  in  the  pres- 
ence of  800,000,000  of  people,  with  the  Pacific 
as  an  American  lake,  and  the  American  artisan 
producing  better  and  cheaper  goods  than  any 
other  country  in  ihe  world,  and  my  friends,  we 
go  to  American  labor  and  to  the  American  farm 
and  say  that  with  McKinley  for  another  four 
years,  there  is  no  congestion  for  America." 

Senator  Depew  forgot  to  say,  that  of  the  total 
wealth  of  the  United  States  those  who  created  it 


CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW  WANTS  TO  EXPAND      I3 

own  but  one-tenth  of  it.  He  forgot  to  say  that 
laborers  in  our  iron  mills,  our  sweat-shops,  and 
farms  die  at  an  average  age  of  33  years  from  ex- 
posure, overwork  and  insufficient  nourishment, 
and  that  the  non-producers,  who  get  nine-tenths 
of  all  that  the  laboring  people  produce,  live  to  an 
average  age  of  63.  He  forgot  to  say  that  the 
railroads  are  stocked  for  six  billions  more  than 
they  cost,  and  that  while  the  railroad  kings  receive 
princely  salaries,  the  workers  on  those  roads  get 
an  average  of  but  $1.15  per  day,  and  are  laid  off 
half  the  time.  He  forgot  to  say  that  one- eighth  of 
the  people  of  this  country  own  seven-eighths  of  all 
the  wealth,  and  that  the  working  people  are  grow- 
ing poorer  and  poorer  every  day.  Instead  of  pro- 
viding for  a  more  just  distribution  of  the  great 
wealth  our  half-starved  working  men  have  piled 
up  for  the  capitalists. 

Chauncey  would  expand.  He  would  open  up 
the  doors  of  the  Philippines  and  China  and  other 
countries,  and  compel  them  to  buy  this  $2,000,- 
000,000  of  goods  that  the  rich  have  filched  from 
the  working  people,  or  if  they  do  not  open  their 
doors,  we  will  kill  them,  under  the  providence  of 
God  and  the  statesmanship  of  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. Hark,  ye  slaves  of  the  coal  mines ;  ye  half- 
starved  operatives  in  the  factories  or  sweat-shops ; 
ye  diggers  and  delvers  with  the  hoe,  with  bended 
form  and  slanting  brow ;  hark,  ye  hayseeds  with 
mortgages  on  your  homes  ;  ye  are  producing  more 
than  ye  can  consume;  ye  are  producing  a  *'con- 
gestion,"  come  now  and  vote  for  the  "Rough 
Rider,*'  Roosevelt,  who  under  the  providence  of 


14  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

God  is  going  to  raise  a  great  army  of  your  boys 
and  send  them  around  the  world  to  find  markets 
for  this  vast  surplus  wealth  you  are  creating  (of 
which  you  get  but  one-tenth).  This  will  force 
your  wages  still  lower,  for  if  we  can  send  the 
product  of  American  labor  to  your  conquered 
provinces,  they  can  send  their  products  here.  If 
our  laborers  can  go  there,  theirs  can  come  here, 
and  there  will  be  a  readjustment  of  wages.  In 
Japan  and  China,  >n  Hawaii  and  the  Philippines, 
the  laborers  get  from  5  to  50  cents  per  day.  The 
imperialistic  policy  carried  out  will  bring  an  even- 
ing up  of  wages,  under  which  arrangement  yours 
must  go  lower. 

There  is  a  ''congestion"  now  in  America,  says 
Senator  Depew.  We  are  producing  too  much. 
The  people  will  become  indolent  from  such  a  sur- 
feit of  riches.  Vote  the  Republican  ticket,  says 
the  Senator,  and  there  will  be  no  further  "conges- 
tion," and  the  exploiters  of  the  American  labor- 
ers will  unload  some  of  the  vast  wealth  which  has 
become  a  burden  to  them.  It  was  secured  by  gi- 
gantic trusts,  and  displacing  working  men,  and 
watering  stocks,  and  railroad  extortion,  and 
sweat-shops,  and  class  legislation  in  the  interests 
of  the  few,  but  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  and 
God,  assisted  by  the  Rough  Rider,  will  force  the 
heathens  to  take  the  surplus  oif  the  hands  of  the 
exploiters,  and  the  American  laborer  can  go  on 
creating  more  surplus  at  from  50  cents  to  $1.15 
per  day. 

Chauncey,  in  his  speech  at  the  National  Repub- 
lican Convention,  said,  "I  remember  when  I  used 


CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW  WANTS  TO  EXPAND       1 5 

to  go  abroad — it  is  a  good  thing  for  a  man  to  go 
abroad — I  used  to  be  ashamed,  because  every- 
where they  would  say,  'What  is  the  matter  with 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  when  you  have 
slavery  in  your  land  ?'  Well,  we  took  slavery  out, 
and  now  no  American  is  ashamed  to  go  abroad. 
When  I  went  abroad  afterwards,  the  ship  was  full 
of  merchants,  buying  iron  and  buying  steel,  and 
buying  wool  and  buying  cotton,  and  all  kinds  of 
goods. 

'*Now,  when  an  American  goes  around  the 
world,  what  happens  to  him  when  he  reaches  the 
capital  of  Japan  ?  He  rides  on  an  electric  rail- 
way, made  by  American  mechanics ;  when  he 
reaches  the  territory  of  China  he  reads  under  an 
electric  light,  invented  by  Mr.  Edison,  and  put  up 
by  American  artisans.  When  he  goes  over  the 
great  railway  across  Siberia,  from  China  to  St. 
Petersburg,  he  rides  on  American  rails,  in  cars 
drawn  by  American  locomotives.  W^hen  he  goes 
to  Germany  he  finds  our  iron  and  steel  climbing 
over  a  $2.50  tariff,  and  thereby  scaring  the  Kaiser 
almost  out  of  his  wits.  When  he  reaches  the  great 
exposition  at  Paris,  he  finds  the  French  wine- 
maker  saying  that  American  wine  cannot  be  ad- 
mitted there,  for  the  purpose  of  judgment.  When 
he  goes  to  old  London  he  gets  for  breakfast  Cali- 
fornia fruit,  he  gets  for  lunch  biscuit  and  bread 
made  of  W^estern  flour,  and,  when  he  gets  for 
dinner  'roast  beef  of  old  England'  taken  from 
the  plains  of  Montana,  his  feet  rest  on  a  carpet 
marked  'Axminster — made  in  Yonkers,  N.  Y.'  " 

In  striking  the  above  keynote  of  American  capi- 


l6  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

talism,  Chauncey  Depew  fails  to  say,  that,  when 
the  American  goes  to  New  York  he  finds  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  human  beings  huddled  to- 
gether in  tenement  houses,  which  are  not  fit  for 
the  beasts  of  the  field  to  house  in — where  four  or 
five  persons  eat,  drink,  sleep  and  live  together  in 
a  single  room.  He  also  fails  to  mention  that  when 
he  goes  to  New  York,  or  any  other  large  city  in 
the  United  States  or  in  Europe,  he  finds  workmen 
and  women,  in  sweat-shops  with  only  20  to  100 
cubic  feet  of  breathing  space  for  each  individual, 
and  from  which  cause  the  atmosphere  becomes 
vile  and  overcharged  with  noxious  and  poisonous 
matter,  which  breeds  disease  and  death  to  the 
workers. 

Is  the  United  States  prosperous?  If  not,  why 
not? 

It  is  asserted  by  politicians  that  the  people  of 
this  country  are  very  prosperous.  Is  the  claim 
well  founded?  I  contend,  it  is  not.  I  concede 
that  a  few  are  amassing  wealth  rapidly,  but  the 
many  can  hardly  make  ends  meet,  while  millions 
are  slowly,  but  surely,  sinking  into  poverty. 

In  1850  the  total  wealth  of  the  United  States 
was  $8,000,000,000.  The  producers  had  posses- 
eion  of  62 J  per  cent  of  tt.  In  1900  the  total 
wealth  was  estimated  at  $100,000,000,000,  and 
the  producers  own  but  10  per  cent  of  it. 

In  1850,  as  shown  by  the  census  of  the  United 
States,  we  had  to  each  million  of  inhabitants,  673 
insane,  580  criminals.  In  1890  we  had  1,698  in- 
sane to  the  million,  and  1,349  adult  criminals.  In 
those  forty  years  insanity  had  increased  700  per  . 

1 


CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW  WANTS  TO  EXPAND      1 7 

cent  and  crime  600  per  cent.  In  1890,  of  the  82,- 
329  convicted  adult  criminals,  71,225  had  com- 
mitted offenses  against  property  rights,  while  only 
10,104  had  committed  crimes  against  the  person. 
This  is  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  the  peo- 
ple were  growing  poorer. 

It  is  very  apparent  that  the  distribution  of  prop- 
erty is  not  equitable.  The  people  who  produce  all 
wealth  now,  own  but  one-tenth  of  it,  and  the 
idlers,  the  non-producers,  are  possessed  of  nine- 
tenths  of  all  the  wealth.  There  are  many  sharp 
schemes  for  cheating  the  producers  out  of  their 
earnings,  but  I  will,  in  this  article,  name  but  one 
of  them.  The  railroads  cost  in  their  construction 
but  six  billions  of  dollars,  but  they  were  stocked 
for  twelve  billions,  and  are  operated  so  as  to  earn 
dividends  on  that  vast  sum. 

Ex-Governor  Larrabee  of  Iowa — unquestiona- 
bly good  authority — says  that  they  cost  less  than 
$25,000  per  mile,  i3Ut  were  stocked  up  for  $60,000. 

The  presidents  and  vice  presidents  of  the  roads 
receive  $9,000,000  salary  per  year.  Five  millions 
are  paid  for  "law  expenses"  and  for  lobbying  leg- 
islative bodies,  and  then  $375,000,000  profits  are 
made.  In  1897  nineteen  hundred  miles  of  rail 
road  were  constructed  and  they  were  capitalized 
at  $212,000  per  mile.  Russia  builds  her  railroads 
at  an  average  cost  of  $10,000  per  mile,  and  gives 
the  public  excellent  service.  In  Belgium,  the  gov- 
ernment owns  the  railroads  and  a  working  man 
can  buy  a  ticket,  good  for  six  trips  a  week,  of 
forty-two  miles  at  fifty-seven  cents.  In  the  Uni- 
ted States  800,000  men  are  employed  in  railroad- 


l8  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

ing  (not  in  constructing)  ;  184,404  are  trackmen 
and  receive  on  an  average  $1.15  per  day  of  twelve 
hours,  and  are  laid  off  half  of  the  year.  Many  of 
the  presidents  receive  from  $25,000  to  $100,000 
per  year  as  salaries. 

One-half  of  the  Americans  own  practically 
nothing.  One-eighth  of  the  people  own  seven- 
eighths  of  all  the  wealth.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
insanity  and  crime  are  increasing? 

DEPEW'S  PROSPERITY. 

Chauncey  tells  the  American  workingmen  that 
they  produce  annually  $2,000,000,000  more  in 
products  than  they  consume,  and  that  they  pro- 
duce cheaper  products  than  any  other  working- 
men  in  the  world.  Do  you  hear  that,  Mr.  Work- 
er? With  the  pohtical  ballot  at  your  disposal; 
you  work  cheaper  than  any  of  the  wage  slaves  in 
the  old  despotisms  of  Europe ;  and  your  abund- 
ance of  food,  clothing,  fuel  and  shelter  are  two 
billion  dollars  annually  more  than  you  can  con- 
sume. Did  sixty  million  American  workingmen 
authorize  Mr.  Depew  to  make  this  statement  to 
their  capitalistic  masters  who  composed  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention  at  Philadelphia  ?  If 
they  did  not,  and  Mr.  Depew  assumed  to  speak 
in  their  behalf,  he  forgot  to  mention  one  import- 
ant item  which  is  of  great  concern  to  the  Ameri- 
can workingmen,  and  that  item  is  the  first  count 
in  the  indictment  Socialism  has  drawn  against  the 
capitalist  system  of  production ;  namely,  the  steal- 
ing of  eighty-three  per  cent  of  every  dollar's 
worth  of  products    produced    by    the    working 


CHAUNCEY  M.  DEPEW  WANTS  TO  EXPAND      IQ 

class.  Mr.  Depew  and  his  capitalist  cronies  can 
chuckle  at  the  fool  workers  buying  back  a  dol- 
lar's worth  of  their  stolen  products,  on  the  install- 
ment plan,  with  17  cents.  By  the  way,  Workers, 
Mr.  Depew  knows  that  the  working  class  will 
never  consume  what  they  never  get.  He  also 
knows  that  those  invisible  threads  of  capitalism 
which  bind  the  workers  to  their  capitalist  mas- 
ters, are  like  the  spider  webs — unseen  to  both  vic- 
tims— however,  science  and  genius  are  casting 
light  upon  the  invisible  threads,  and  the  long, 
dark  night  of  slavery  and  poverty,  suffered  by  the 
working  class  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  abund- 
ance ever  known  on  this  earth,  is  nearing  its  end. 
Their  freedom  is  foreshadowed  in  the  concentra- 
tion of  the  means  of  existence  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  persons,  called  capitalists,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  trust  is  a  signal  warning  to  the  intel- 
ligent workers  to  organize  themselves  under  the 
banner  of  International  Socialism,  capture  the  po- 
litical powers,  and  emancipate  themselves  from 
wage  slavery.  Then  the  products  produced  by 
the  workers  will  be  theirs  instead  of  the  idle  capi- 
talists. 

Hurrah,  for  the  trusts  !  They  are  clearing  and 
paving  the  way  to  establish  the  workingmen's  co- 
operative commonwealth. 


A  STARTLING  ARRAY  OF  FACTS. 

The  total  wealth  of  the  United  States,  according 
to  the  estimates  of  the  government's  official  Statis- 
tician, is  sixty-two  billions  of  dollars.  Upon  this 
wealth  is  a  bonded  and  mortgaged  indebtedness 
of  over  forty  billions  of  dollars.  The  annual  in- 
crease of  this  debt,  by  interest  alone,  is  not  less 
than  three  billions  of  dollars.  The  interest  on  this 
is  an  annual  tax  on  every  man,  woman  and  child 
in  the  whole  country  of  $34.30,  or  on  every  fam- 
ily of  five  persons,  of  $171.50. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  producers,  the  actual 
working  people,  pay  it  all,  but  they  do  not  yet 
understand  the  means  by  which  this  monstrous  in- 
justice is  accomplished.  We  have  eight  billions 
of  dollars  bonded  indebtedness  held  abroad  on 
which  we  pay  annually  three  hundred  and  twenty 
million  dollars  interest. 

There  are  more  than  nine  million  mortgages  on 
American  homes  and  lands.  Thirty  thousand 
people  own  thirty-five  billion  dollars,  or  more  than 
one-half  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation.  Fifty  mil- 
lion Americans  own  no  homes,  and  have  to  pay 
either  rent  or  interest. 

No  man  can  be  free  who  has  to  pay  another  for 
the  bare  privilege  of  living. 

There  are  three  million  unemployed  in  this  free 
and  "prosperous"  America,  or  about  one-fourth 
the  total  population. 

One  million  two  hundred  thousand  child  labor- 
ers below  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  working  long 


A  STARTLING  ARR.\Y  OF  FACTS  21 

hours  in  factories  and  sweat-shops.  Two  milHon, 
toiling  twelve  to  sixteen  hours  a  day  for  such 
beggarly  wages  that  they  must  either  die  of  want 
or  live  by  shame. 

It  is  learned  that  twenty-seven  individuals  or 
corporations  own,  in  the  United  States,  twenty- 
two  million,  five  hundred  and  thirty-two  thou- 
sand acres  of  land,  while  three  millions  of  Ameri- 
can citizens  are  out  of  employment. 

Two  hundred  and  forty  thousand  saloons  to 
breed  misery  and  crime.  Twenty-three  thousand 
men  and  women  ivilled  and  mangled  on  the  rail- 
roads of  this  country  for  the  want  of  proper  safe- 
guards. Ten  thousand  five  hundred  murders  in 
1896,  a  gain  of  i,ocx)  per  cent  in  ten  years,  while 
the  population  gains  only  one  hundred  per  cent 
in  twenty-five  years.  This  is  an  average  of  one 
murder  each  hour  in  the  day  for  every  hour  in 
the  year.  To  which  must  be  added  7,000  suicides 
last  year,  and  these  increasing  more  rapidly  than 
the  murderers.  Thirty-five  thousand  little  chil- 
dren dying  annually  from  starvation  and  want. 
Twenty  thousand  people  of  all  ages  dying  an- 
nually in  New  York  City  alone  from  want.  Two 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  great  financial  fail- 
ures during  the  last  thirty-five  years.  One  mil- 
lion of  failures  for  men  with  less  than  three  thou- 
sand dollars  each,  small  grocers,  restaurants,  ho- 
tels, etc.,  average  business  men,  ''the  bone  and 
sinew  of  the  nation.''  Bank  embezzlements  and 
failures  during  1896,  $25,000,000.  The  fore- 
closure of  not  less  than  twenty-five  per  cent  of 
the  farms  and  homes  of  the  people.     Two  hun- 


22  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

dred  and  ten  million  acres  of  public  lands  granted 
to  railroad  corporations.  These  are  the  bitter 
fruits  of  ignorance,  apathy,  prejudice  and  parti- 
sanship on  the  part  of  the  people  by  which  their 
rulers  have  been  aided  and  encouraged  to  pile  up 
this  monstrous  iniquity.  Forty  billion  dollars 
debts.  Nine  million  mortgages.  Three  million 
unemployed  men.  War,  famine,  litigation,  mur- 
der, suicide  and  utter  loss  of  faith,  all  increasing 
with  appalling  rapidity.  But  no  punishment,  no 
law  can  suppress  the  rising  tide  of  crime  and  de- 
bauchery and  despair  until  the  cause  is  removed. 

CIVILIZATION. 

What  sort  of  a  civilization  and  industrial  sys- 
tem is  it  that  never  brings  peace  ?  Either  we  are 
suffering  stagnation,  with  all  the  crooks,  crimi- 
nals, thieves  and  murderers  terrorizing  us,  while 
starvation  and  the  army  of  the  unemployed  fright- 
en us  with  the  nightmare,  or  we  have  "prosperity" 
and  ''trade  picking  up,"  with  everybody  going  on 
strike,  and  police  and  militia  everywhere  trying 
to  fraternize  capital  and  labor  with  club  and  bayo- 
net. 

Capitalism  is  an  utter  failure,  everywhere  and 
at  all  times,  to  give  us  peace.  Its  good  trade  is 
only  one  whit  less  evil  than  its  bad  trade.  Surely 
the  world  will  some  day  get  very  tired  of  the 
whole  blind  staggery  system  that  does  nothing 
but  blunder  and  stumble  along,  scattering  disorder 
and  misery  and  ruin  at  every  step,  year  in,  year 
out,  forever. 


COMBINE  AGAINST  THE  GOVERNMENT. 

There  is  a  combination  of  armor-manufacturers 
and  one  of  ship-builders,  both  intimately  related. 
The  armor  factories  and  the  ship  yards  in  these 
combinations  have  been  paid  for,  several  times 
over,  out  of  the  profits  on  government  contracts, 
says  the  New  York  Journal.    The  armor-makers, 
in' recent  years,  have  doubled  the  price  of  their 
products.    \\'hen  the  government,  their  only  cus- 
tomer, asked  for  some  figures  from  their  books  to 
show  that  this  increase  was  just,  the  manufac- 
turers informed  it  that  it  was  asking  about  mat- 
ters which  were  none  of  its  business.    When  they 
put  in  bids  they  did  so  in  open  collusion,  with  no 
attempt  to  conceal  their  conspiracy.    At  the  same 
time  the  ship-builders  were  charging  more  per 
ton  for  ships — in  some  cases  over  fifty  per  cent 
more — than  they  had  charged  fifteen  years  before, 
when  the  prices  of  all  materials  were  enormously 
higher.  The  government  had  ship-yards  of  its  own, 
which  it  had  equipped  at  a  cost  of  scores  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  There  was  a  proposition  to  release 
it  from  the  grip  of  the  insolent  ship-building  and 
armor  combinations  by  having  it  build  some  of  its 
ships  in  its  own  yards  and  establish  its  own  armor 
plant.    The  idea  was  popular  in  Congress  but  the 
combination  "controlled  and  awed"  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  people,  and  the  government  meekly 
surrendered  to  the  trusts.    After  the  adjournment 
of  Congress  the  armor  makers  put  in  bids  that 
had  manifestly  been  prepared  by  a  single  hand, 


24  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

and  impudently  notified  the  government  that  it 
must  divide  its  orders  between  two  establishments 
or  get  no  armor,  and  instead  of  ordering  the  con- 
spirators off  the  premises  and  ruling  them  out  of 
any  future  competition,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
meekly  begged  them  to  make  another  proposition. 
Why  did  the  ''patriots  and  statesmen,"  who  so 
loyally  ''represent  the  people,"  so  bitterly  oppose 
and  defeat  the  proposition  to  have  the  govern- 
ment build  and  operate  its  own  armor-plate  plant  ? 
Because  if  it  should  be  demonstrated  that  the 
people  could  in  that  manner  reduce  the  cost  of 
their  war  ships  from  one-half  to  two-thirds,  it 
would  be  very  bad  news  for  some  men. 


TO  MR.  ROOSEVELT. 

In  the  campaign  of  1900,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  you 
claimed  that  the  issue  of  the  campaign  was  the 
continued  prosperity  of  the  American  people,  and 
you  pointed  to  the  increase  of  wages  as  evidence 
of  the  workers'  welfare.  We  would  ask  you :  Is 
the  increase  of  wages  you  mention  due  purely  to 
the  benevolence  of  the  prosperous  employers? 
Or  is  it  not  rather  due  to  the  power  of  labor  or- 
ganization to  restrict  ruinous  competition  in  the 
labor  market  and  thus  raise  the  price  of  their  labor 
power?  If  you  reply  that  prosperity  has  enabled 
the  employers  to  pay  more  wages,  do  you  not 
merely  mean  that  the  productivity  of  labor  has 
been  so  greatly  increased  that  the  employers  can 
accede  to  the  demands  of  their  workmen  and  still 
make  more  profit  than  formerly?  If  prosperity 
is  the  result  of  increased  productivity  of  labor, 
why  do  you  claim  the  glory  ?  Or  is  the  Republi- 
can party  the  sole  inventor  of  that  improved  ma- 
chinery which  enables  labor  to  produce  more 
wealth  ?  You  say  you  wish  a  continuance  of  the 
era  of  the  "full  dinner  pail;"  you  believe  in  pro- 
tecting American  labor  from  foreign  competi- 
tion. If  foreign  competition  is  hurtful,  can  home 
competition  be  good?  If  competition  of  any  kind 
is  hurtful  w^hy  do  you  not  advocate  Co-operative 
Socialism  ?  If  you  and  your  party  believe  in  pro- 
tecting organized  American  labor,  why  did  your 
predecessor  send  Federal  troops  to  Idaho  to  aid 
the  Democratic  Governor  of  that  State  in  crush- 


26  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

ing  out  the  Miner's  Union  ?  If  it  was  to  protect 
property,  as  you  did  when  you  sent  the  State  mili- 
tia to  Croton  Dam,  N.  Y.,  does  that  not  mean 
that  you  will  protect  the  property  of  the  pluto- 
crats, though  to  do  so  you  must  deprive  working 
men  of  their  liberties  and  lives  ?  Is  not  the  bloody 
record  of  the  labor  trouble  since  the  '70s  a  mass 
of  conclusive  evidence  that  the  Republican  and 
Democratic  parties  both  stand  ever  ready  to  sac- 
rifice manhood  on  the  altar  of  mammon,  the  god 
of  greed?  You  speak  of  working  men  as  a  sep- 
arate part  of  the  people.  Does  not  that  admit  that 
there  is  another  part  of  the  people  who  do  not 
work  ?  Since  people  can  only  get  their  living  by 
working,  begging  or  stealing,  have  those  who, 
like  your  friend  Hanna,  are  not  working  people, 
begged  or  stolen  their  millions? 

Why  has  not  the  Republican  party  protected 
the  American  labor  that  produced  this  wealth 
from  these  beggars  and  thieves?  If  we  should 
admit  that  the  capitalist  works,  would  not  you 
admit  that  he  simply  works  the  people — for  all 
they  are  worth  ?  Is  such  work  productive  of  any- 
thing but  misery  and  want  to  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple? If  you  believe  that  ''all  conspiracies  to  re- 
strict business  or  control  prices"  should  be  de- 
stroyed, why  have  you  not  used  the  present  laws 
,to  suppress  such  trusts  as  do  exist?  If  the  pres- 
ent laws  are  inadequate,  why  have  you  not  advo- 
cated better  legislation  ?  Or,  are  labor  organiza- 
tions the  only  criminal  trusts  you  know  of?  To 
this  question  we  demand  a  particular  answer.  Not 
a  single  combination  of  capital  have  you  attacked. 


TO  MR.  ROOSEVELT  2^ 

not  one  solitary  trust  have  you  suppressed,  though 
by  raising  prices  and  organizing  their  industries, 
they  have  pkindered  the  people  of  millions  and  de- 
prived thousands  of  their  means  of  livelihood. 

Yet  your  party  has  sent  troops  to  destroy  the 
miners'  union  in  Idaho  for  merely  defending  the 
rights  of  its  members  against  the  aggression  of  a 
combination  of  mine  owners.  Did  you  not  agree 
with  Cleveland  that  the  A.  R.  U.  was  an  "illegal 
combination  for  the  restraint  of  trade,"  and  that 
Eugene  \ .  Debs'  imprisonment  in  Woodstock 
jail  was  just.  AMiat  word  of  encouragement  have 
you  given  the  coal  miners  ?  What  measures  have 
you  taken  against  the  owners?  Do  you  not  stand 
for  the  capitalists  and  against  the  workers  every 
time?  You  say  that  the  Republican  party  is 
pledged  to  the  gold  standard.  Did  you  not  pre- 
tend in  1896  to  favor  bimetallism  ?  If  your  silver 
pretensions  in  1896  were  dishonest,  are  not  your 
pretensions  of  enmity  to  trusts,  and  friendship  to 
labor,  also  false  ?  Did  the  war  for  humanity  in 
Cuba  demand  the  slaughter  of  the  helpless  natives 
in  the  Philippines?  Was  it  necessary  to  avenge 
the  ]\Iaine  by  sacrificing  the  lives  of  thousands  of 
our  volunteers  ?  Did  "our  plain  duty"  dictate  the 
feeding  them  on  embalmed  beef,  exposing  to  the 
deadly  fevers  of  foreign  swamps,  and  debauching 
them  with  whisky  and  disease?  Is  not  the  real 
cause  of  this  criminal  aggression  the  desire  of 
American  capitalists  to  acquire  territory  in  which 
to  invest  the  wealth  they  have  squeezed  from 
American  labor  ?  You  say  that  you  will  deal  with 
these  people  the  same  as  with  the  American  peo- 


28  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

pie.  Do  you  mean  that  the  methods  of  the  Ward- 
ner  bull-pen  will  be  in  vogue  among  them?  Or 
will  you  establish  in  this  country  the  military  des- 
potism you  are  endeavoring  to  establish  in  the 
Philippines?  Is  the  imprisonment  of  Socialists 
and  trade  unionists  in  San  Juan  the  method  you 
will  pursue  to  inculcate  American  principles  of 
self-government?  Finally,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  is  not 
the  record  of  your  party  replete  with  crimes 
against  labor,  with  wrongs  against  humanity, 
with  injustice  to  the  poor  and  oppressed  of  many 
nations  ?  Have  you  not  favored  in  every  possi- 
ble way  the  aggrandizement  of  the  trusts  ?  Have 
you  not  launched  the  nation  upon  a  career  of 
colonial  expansion  to  widen  their  markets  and  to 
open  for  them  new  fields  of  investment?  Have 
you  not  crushed  all  opposition  with  a  ruthless, 
brutal  hand,  whether  it  was  American  trade  un- 
ionist, Puerto  Rican  Socialist,  or  native  of  the 
Philippines  ?  Do  you  know  of  any  reason  why 
any  working  man  or  any  good  liberty-loving  citi- 
zen should  vote  for  either  of  the  old  parties  when 
he  can  cast  his  ballot  for  a  representative  of  the 
principles  of  the  Socialist  Party,  the  party  of  his 
own  class  ? 


A  HISTORY-MAKING  TERM. 

If  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  to  be 
taken  as  authority,  and  who  among  us  all,  even 
among  the  capitalist  class  itself,  dare  repudiate 
it?  "these  truths  are  self-evident;  that  all  men 
(and  if  that  means  anything  it  does  not  exclude 
the  Boer  in  South  Africa,  the  Cuban,  nor  the  Fili- 
pino, nor  yet  a  privileged  class  in  this  country), 
all  men  are  born  equal,  with  certain  inalienable 
(and  inalienable,  I  take  it,  means  natural,  inher- 
ent rights,  rights  from  which  you  may  not  be  di- 
vorced) rights,  and  among  these,  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness."  And  further,  that  gov- 
ernments are  instituted  among  men  to  guarantee 
them  those  rights.  That  is  to  say,  a  government 
is  a  protector,  a  benefactor,  or  servant.  If  the 
government  is  our  protector,  evidently  it  is  to  pro- 
tect the  weaker  members  in  society  from  the 
stronger.  The  working  class,  although  in  a  great 
majority,  are  economically  and  politically  w^eaker. 
Socialists  maintain,  with  the  framers  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  that  the  purpose  of  gov- 
ernment is  to  secure  every  citizen  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  these  rights,  but  in  the  light  of  our  eco- 
nomic condition  we  hold,  that  no  such  right  can 
be  exercised  under  conditions  essentially  destruc- 
tive of  life,  of  liberty  and  happiness.  Against 
these  conditions  Socialists  protest,  declaring  that 
private  ownership  of  the  instruments  of  produc- 
tion and  distribution  are  the  cause,  and  call  upon 
all  wage  workers  to  organize  under  the  banner  of 


30  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

the  Socialist  party  into  a  class-conscious  body, 
aware  of  its  rights  and  determined  to  conquer 
by  taking  possession  of  the  political  power;  so 
that,  held  together  by  an  indomitable  spirit  of 
solidarity  under  the  most  trying  conditions  of  the 
present  class  struggle,  we  may  put  a  summary 
end  to  that  barbarous  struggle  by  the  abolition 
of  the  classes,  the  restoration  of  all  the  means  of 
production  and  distribution  to  the  people  as  a  col- 
lective body  and  the  substitution  of  the  Co-opera- 
tive Commonwealth  for  the  present  state  of  plan- 
less production,  industrial  war  and  social  disor- 
der ;  a  commonwealth  in  which  the  worker  shall 
have  the  full  product  of  his  toil,  multiplied  by  all 
the  modern   factors  of  civilization ;  a  common- 
w^ealth  in  which  all  shall  have  at  least  equality  of 
opportunity.     The  property  the  Socialists  would 
take  from  the  capitalist  is  ''that  part  of  wealth, 
owned  by  one  man  or  set  of  men  and  operated  by 
another  man  or  set  of  men,  with  a  view  of  profit 
to  the  owner  and  wages  to  the  operator ;"  that  is, 
they  would  take  only  that  part  of  his  wealth  which 
is  superfluous,  over  and  above  what  he  can  him- 
self operate.    Abolish  interest,  profit  and  rent.    It 
would  in  no  case  take  from  him  his  means  of  liv- 
ing, but  insure  him  and  his  employment  for  which 
he  would  receive  the  full  product,  if  able  to  work. 
If  too  young  or  too  old,  or  in  any  way  unable  to 
work,  he  would  be  the  honored  charge  of  society, 
whose  duty  it  is  to  protect  itself  through  Its  mem- 
bers.    While  taking  from  the  capitalist,  the  ex- 
ploiting class,  the  wealth  they  have  taken  from  the 
workers  and  returning  it  to  the  workers,  it  will 


A    HISTORY-MAKING    TERM  3 1 

in  return  guarantee  them  for  all  time  the  rights  of 
life,  liberty  and  pursuit  of  happiness,  which  all 
their  wealth  and  power  does  not  do.  How  many 
reformers  there  are  who  hold  up  their  hands  in 
horror  of  Socialism  and  cry,  unjust,  etc.,  who 
themselves  champion  such  so-called  palliatives  as 
municipal  ownership,  single  tax,  income  and  in- 
heritance tax,  without  seeing  that  the  adjectives 
they  apply  to  Socialism  are  in  every  respect  true 
of  their  own  pet  schemes.  When  they  speak  of 
taxing  heavily,  lands,  stocks  and  incomes,  they 
aim  at  the  large  capitalist,  who,  holding  the  power 
of  government  in  his  hands,  can  easily  evade  their 
laws,  even  were  they  able  to  enact  such  laws. 
They  entirely  lose  sight  of  the  thousands  of  aged 
citizens,  orphans,  widows  and  educational  institu- 
tions whose  only  means  of  support  are  invested  in 
those  securities  and  who  would  be  made  paupers, 
or  nearly  so,  by  increasing  the  already  heavy  tax 
on  their  little  holdings,  or  by  forcing  the  sale  of 
stocks  at  par  for  which  they  paid  large  premiums ; 
thereby  cutting  into  their  little  holdings — provid- 
ing of  course  their  little  scheme  works  as  they 
would  have  it  work. 

WHAT  DO  THEY  OFFER   HIM    IX    RETURN  ? 

The  same  they  offer  the  worker  when  they  de- 
prive him  of  his  means  of  support,  his  job.  They 
offer  him  nothing.  Since  the  question  of  justice 
is  brought  into  the  argument,  which  is  the  more 
unjust — the  scheme  of  the  Reformer  (  ?)  or  So- 
cialism? We  might  swallow  their  proposed  nos- 
trum as  many  an  "ostrich"  does  if  it  would  in  anv 


32  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

way  benefit  the  worker.  But  it  would  not.  But 
that  is  another  story.  It  is  not  a  question  of  jus- 
tice, it  is  a  question  of  power. 

How  are  we  going  to  survive  the  further  de- 
velopment of  capitalism,  which  Spencer  foresaw 
in  his  boyhood  ?  When  the  wealth  is  in  the  hands 
of  a  few  and  one  man  can  with  the  aid  of  machin- 
ery supply  the  needs  of  ten,  what  is  the  dispos- 
sessed nine  to  do  who  have  no  means  of  living? 
They  will  not  meekly  crawl  off  into  a  hole  and  die 
like  poisoned  dogs.  They  will  turn  like  the  pro- 
verbial worm  and  demand  their  own.  That  is 
why  the  Socialists  call  upon  them  to  organize 
now,  and  take  intelligent,  political  action  before  it 
is  too  late. 

AS  TO  THE  FLAG. 

Mr.  McKinley's  fervid  inquiry :  'The  flag;  who 
will  haul  it  down?"  has  provoked  some  peculiar 
and  disgusting  revelations.  For  instance,  the 
Springfield  Republican,  an  independent  newspa- 
per of  wide  circulation  and  influence,  contained 
the  following:  ''What  will  especially  surprise 
many  people  in  the  United  States  is  that  this  busi- 
ness (of  female  prostitution  in  Manila)  has  been 
taken  under  the  ofificial  recognition  and  supervis- 
ion of  the  United  States  Army  Authorities,  after 
the  manner  of  certain  European  Continental  cities. 
It  is,  according  to  Mr.  Johnson,  the  New  York 
Voice's  special  Commissioner  to  the  Philippines, 
'conducted  under  the  supervision  of  a  regular  de- 
partment of  the  military  government,  the  depart- 
ment of  Municipal  Inspection.'  Two  whole  streets 


A    HISTORY-MAKING    TERM  33 

are  entirely  taken  up  with  houses  of  ill-repute,' 
writes  Mr.  Johnson.  At  night  these  two  streets 
are  filled  with  drunken  soldiers,  rioting,  veiling 
Americans,  and  half-naked  women.  In  this  set- 
tlement there  is  scarcely  a  house  of  prostitution 
which  is  not  decorated  with  American  flags,  in- 
side and  out.  Some  of  them  have  American  flags 
painted  clear  across  the  front  of  their  establish- 
ments. All  have  glaring  signs  of  American  beers 
either  inside  or  out.  "The  flag,  who  will  haul  it 
down  ?"  Sentiment  is  all  right,  as  far  as  it  goes, 
but  when  it  involves  such  a  grave  departure  from 
right  principles  as  is  noted  above,  there  are  few 
decent  Americans  w^ho  will  feel  like  standing  by 
IMcKinley's  sentiment  in  reference  to  the  flag. 
If  the  ensign  is  a  "flaunting  lie,"  or  if  it  stands  for 
governmental  protection  of  Sulu  slavery,  polyg- 
amy, and  of  other  vices  and  unspeakable  crimes, 
will  the  American  people,  jealous  of  their  own 
rights,  and  their  own  good  fame,  dare  to  let  it 
stand  ? 

HOW  THE  PEOPLE  ARE  OUTRAGED  AND  ROBBED. 

There  are  28,000  Englishmen  in  India,  holding 
official  positions,  and  drawing  salaries  amount- 
ing to  $75,000,000  a  year.  The  natives  of  India 
have  no  control  whatsoever,  in  any  shape  or  form, 
over  their  own  taxation  ;  they  have  no  voice  in  the 
expenditure  of  the  taxes  they  pay.  The  taxation 
of  the  land  is  so  heavy  that  farms  are  rapidly 
going  out  of  cultivation.  In  the  central  provinces 
the  land  tax  is  one-half  of  the  produce  of  the 
land.     Under  the  native  rule,  in  the  years  when 


34  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

the  land  lies  fallow,  it  is  taxed  one-eighth.  In  the 
British  provinces  fallow  land  is  taxed  to  the  full. 
The  net  revenue  in  India  to-day  is  $305,000,000. 
Of  this  amount  $125,000,000  is  raised  by  the  land 
tax.  Salt,  which  is  a  necessity  of  life  for  the 
people  and  their  cattle,  is  taxed  1,000  per  cent 
on  the  value  of  the  salt.  Half  of  the  total  net  rev- 
enue of  India  is  drained  out  of  the  country.  A 
yearly  sum  of  $150,000,000  is  taken  by  England 
from  the  peasantry  of  India,  and  nothing  is  given 
in  return.  Eleven  hundred  retired  Colonels  draw 
over  a  million  a  year  in  pensions  from  the  Indian 
revenue. 

The  people  of  India  are  the  poorest  peasantry 
in  the  world.  The  average  income  per  day  is  less 
than  2d.  Since  the  great  famine  of  1876-7,  we 
have  abstracted  $2,500,000,000  from  India,  and 
this  has  prevented  the  development  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  country.  Hence,  we  have  the  fam- 
ine of  to-day.  India  is  practically  in  a  state  of 
bankruptcy,  caused  by  the  drain  of  its  wealth  to 
England.  In  the  best  seasons  the  peasantry  have 
only  enough  to  barely  support  life.  In  the  prov- 
ince of  Madras  there  are  always  twenty  million 
of  pauper  peasants.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  one  hundred  and  fifty  million  of  the  popu- 
lation of  India  are  dependent  upon  agriculture. 
England  is  the  absentee  landlord  of  India. 

England  is  not  only  a  heartless  robber,  but  a 
hypocrite  as  well.  She  is  rich,  cruel  and  self- 
righteous.  A  year  or  two  ago,  when  Emperor 
William  of  Germany  visited  Queen  Victoria  and 
sat  down  at  her  table,  there  was  spread  on  that 


A    HISTORY-MAKING    TERM  35 

board  plate  to  the  value  of  ten  millions  of  dollars. 
Victoria  was  lauded  to  the  skies  as  a  wise  and 
pious  Christian  Queen,  and  doubtless  she  was  a 
well-meaning,  harmless  old  lady,  but  the  system 
of  laws  and  economics  that  made  her  a  queen  and 
pensioned  a  little  army  of  her  relatives,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  working  people,  is  the  same  system  that 
has  made  six  hundred  thousand  paupers  in  En- 
gland.    It  is  the  same  system  that  makes  one- 
fifth  of  the  people  of  London  so  distressingly  poor 
that  when  their  wretched  life  ends,  they  are  laid 
in  paupers'  graves.     Just  now  there  are  Ameri- 
cans who  see  great  superiority  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment over  all  others,  yet  the  naked  truth  is 
that  that  government  and'  her  business  methods 
are  the  most  wicked  among  civilized  nations.    A 
few  decades  ago  England   forced  the  infamous 
opium  traffic  on  China  at  the  cannon's  mouth,  and 
the  evil  that  resulted  to  the  people  of  that  country 
has  never  been  estimated  and  never  can  be  esti- 
mated.    England  killed  the  Boers,  burned  their 
homes   and   devastated   their  country,   that  they 
might    rob    those    quiet    people    of    their    gold 
mines  and  of  their  liberty.    Instead  of  feeding  the 
starving  people  of  India,  whom  they  have  robbed, 
they  are  spending  their  money  in  destroying  a 
weak   republic  in  Africa,  and  are  preparing  to 
grab  a  portion  of  China,  while  they  go  to  the 
whole  world  and  beg  other  people  to  contribute 
money  with  which  to  buy  food  for  the  victims  in 
India.     Let  all  honest  men  and  women  be  done 
with  hypocritical  cant  about  "Christian  England." 
Let  every  true  American  refuse  to  give  his  sane- 


36  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

tion  to  the  proposed  alliance  of  that  country  to 
this,  sought  by  the  great  capitalists  now  in  control 
of  our  government. 

England,  with  her  king,  her  dukes,  her  lords, 
her  titled  nobility,  and  her  paupers,  her  grasping 
greed,  her  hatred  of  democracies,  her  inhumanity 
in  dealing  with  the  Boers  and  with  India,  is  a 
modern  Babylon,  and  is  Christian  in  name  only. 
Under  the  universal  reign  of  Socialism,  India 
would  be  free,  pauperism  would  be  abolished, 
ignorance  and  crime  would  in  due  time  disappear ; 
kings  and  lords  and  robber  millionaires  would  be 
no  more,  and  in  the  place  of  war  and  cruelty  and 
outrage  we  would  have  prosperity  and  peace. 


BISHOP  POTTER  OF  NEW  YORK  ON  THE 
"RICH  AND  POOR." 

Private  capital  in  the  means  of  life  and  neces- 
saries of  society,  like  a  disease  fastened  on  the 
human  body,  is  giving  evidence  of  the  effects 
which  it  produces  in  the  body  politic,  and,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  man  afflicted  with  disease,  who 
tries  to  persuade  himself  that  he  is  not  seriously 
sick,  and  who  takes  every  means  but  the  right  one 
in  dealing  with  his  disorder,  the  ruling  class  is 
trying  to  persuade  itself,  and  to  get  the  people 
to  believe,  that  the  symptoms  which  indicate 
chronic  disorder  in  our  international  society,  can 
be  dealt  with  in  regular  capitalistic  fashion  to 
the  destruction  of  the  evil  and  the  ultimate  benefit 
of  all.  Bishop  Potter,  of  New  York,  had  an  ar- 
ticle in  the  Sunday's  Chicago  American,  of  Au- 
gust, 1900,  set  up  in  large  type,  v/ith  many  head- 
ings of  larger  type  over  the  various  paragraphs, 
and  his  picture  set  between  two  artistic  candela- 
bras  in  the  center  of  the  whole  printed  matter,  the 
whole  designed  to  catch  the  eye,  and  through  the 
eye  the  mind  of  the  reader  who  can  be  awed  by 
the  display  of  ecclesiastical  forehead,  neck,  dress, 
and  signature,  to  the  exclusion  of  logic,  consist- 
ency and  force  in  the  subject  under  discussion.  He 
writes  of  "The  Teachings  of  Jesus  Concerning 
the  Rich,"  and  the  "Power  of  Wealth,"  "The 
Peril  of  Riches,"  and  "The  Dangers  of  the  Rich 
Man  From  Which  the  Poor  ]\Ian  Is  Happily 
Free."     He  seems  to  write  from  an  idea  in  his 


38  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

mind  that  there  is  an  antagonism  to  v/ealth  exist- 
ing in  society,  and  then  he  used  the  v/ord  wealth, 
as  being  synonymous  with  a  capitaHst.  He  does 
not  care  to  contemplate  what  would  happen  should 
half  a  dozen  rich  men  disinherit  themselves,  to- 
morrow morning  giving  fifty  millions  of  dollars  to 
the  poor,  and  concludes  (after  refusing  to  con- 
template) that  the  ''possession  of  riches  is  not  in- 
consistent with  *our'  Christianity,  nor  alien  to  it." 
He  notes  the  power  of  possession  of  wealth  to 
stimulate  the  instincts  of  cruelty,  to  extinguish 
those  finer  traits  which  make  life  sweet  and  sunny, 
to  make  heaven  and  the  life  that  is  to  come  un- 
longed  for,  and  after  expatiating  on  the  dismal 
prospect  of  the  rich  man  standing  at  the  gates  of 
Heaven  and  looking  back  on  the  houses  and 
lands,  bonds  and  bank  stocks,  etc.,  he  turns  off  to 
fit  the  quotation,  "The  poor  ye  have  always  with 
you,"  and  "Charge  them  that  are  rich  in  this 
world's  goods,"  against  such  as  ''Sell  all  that  thou 
hast  and  give  to  the  poor,"  with  the  result  of 
recognizing  that  one's  views  of  the  inequalities  of 
life  must  include  that  of  wealth  along  with  those 
of  station,  beauty,  etc.,  etc.  His  idea  throughout 
the  whole  article  seems  to  be  to  cover  up  the  rot- 
tenness which  exists,  while  upholding  the  private 
possessions  of  the  great  wealth,  which,  if  owned 
collectively,  would  cause  said  rottenness  to  dis- 
appear. He  flits  all  around  the  subject  and  lights 
here  and  there  to  use  this  or  that  beak  of  scrip- 
ture to  extract  whatever  comfort  he  can  from 
"the  conformity  of  'our  Christianity'  with  the  pos- 
session of  wealth,"  to  ease  the  conscience  of  the 


BISHOP  POTTER  ON  THE  ''RICH  AND  POOR  '      39 

possessors.    ''And  so  wealth,  money,  whether  you 
possess  it  or  crave  it,  or  are  seeking  after  it,  is 
yours,  like  space,  and  air,  and  sunshine,  which 
God  has  given  to  His  creatures  to  desire,  to  em- 
ploy, to  enjoy,  in  His  fear  and  as  His  stewards." 
"If  you  hear  wild  and  foolish  denunciations  of  it, 
despise  them  as  they  deserve."     Who     will     be 
"taken  in"  by  such  nonsense  ?    The  "man  of  God" 
is  upholding  a  Hell  on  Earth.     He  is  upholding 
the  private  possession  of  what  is  as  necessary  to 
life  as  air  and  sunshine — the  wealth  of  the  earth, 
and  stands  sponsor  for  its  possession  by  those 
who,  by  the  cruelty,  which  he  says  its  possession 
stimulates,   may  inflict  and  do  inflict  starvation 
on  those  within  their  sphere  of  influence.     They 
are  able  to  change  the  quotation  to  read,  "The 
starving  ye  have  always  with  you."    Yes,  wealth 
is  here  on  the  earth,  and  like  space  and  air  and 
sunshine  is  for  all  men  to  enjoy,  and  if  God  has 
thus  given  it,  as  the  Bishop  says,  why  does  he 
uphold  its  possession  by  the  few  at  the  expense  of 
the  numberless  ?    Does  he  not  know  that,  in  order 
for  them  to  be  millionaires,  there  must  also  be 
thousands   robbed  of    their    inheritance    of    the 
wealth  of  the  earth  and  their  labor,  to  make  up 
the  millions?     Why  does  he  refuse  to  contem- 
plate the  pandemonium,  etc.,  which  would  reign 
in  Xew  York  should  a  dozen  rich  men  disinherit 
themselves  of  fifty  millions  to  be  distributed  to 
the  poor,  while  upholding  the  system  under  which 
these  fifty  millions  were  gathered  together?    ^lil- 
lions  of  people,  children,  women  and  men,  were 
compelled  to  toil,   starve  and  die  so  that  these 


40  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

dozen  men  might  become  millionaires,  and  the 
Bishop  and  his  colleagues  not  only  contemplated 
the  process  but  witnessed  it.  They  saw  "the  idle- 
ness, the  licentiousness,  the  fierce  hatreds,  etc.,  en- 
gendered '*under  the  process  of  a  few  dozen  men 
accumulating  millions,  and  as  Christian  men  they 
acted  not  to  miake  the  condition  of  the  miserable 
mass  better,  but  worse.  They  acted  according  to 
the  interests  of  the  class  which  is  benefited  by  the 
degradation  of  the  masses  composing  the  oppo- 
site class  and  encouraging  them  (the  working 
class)  to  use  less  and  less  of  what  they  succeed  in 
getting  of  their  products,  so  that  the  class  of 
millionaires  might  benefit. 

When  the  Bishop's  writings  appear  before 
those  who  understand  the  hypocrisy,  or  ignorance, 
or  the  motive  which  led  him  to  unburden  him- 
self of  this  load  of  rubbish,  they  become 
disgusted  to  contemplate  how  many  will 
take  his  advice  to  despise  those  who  point  out 
the  injustice  of  this  system,  which  makes  it  pos- 
sible for  society  to  hoist  such  a  parasite  on  a  ped- 
estal, where  he  may  influence  the  ignorant  to  blind 
their  eyes  and  stop  their  ears  to  shut  out  the  truth. 
He  is  supposed  to  represent  the  author  of  ''Sell 
all  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor,"  and  he  sanc- 
tions selling  the  poor  the  bare  necessities  of  life 
and  taking,  therefore,  their  life's  blood  through 
excessive  toil  and  anxiety  for  the  morrow :  'The 
poor  ye  have  always  with  you,"  and  he  upholds 
the  system  which  changes  it  to  "the  starving;" 
"Charge  them  that  are  rich  in  this  world's  goods," 
and  instead  of  "charging"  them  he  is  simply  tak- 


BISHOP  POTTER  ON  THE     RICH  AND  POOR        4I 

ing  what  they  will  give  him  to  act  as  their  tool  in 
deceiving  the  workers  into  continuing  their  own 
slavery.  Yes,  Mr.  Bishop,  we  know  "that  wealth, 
like  space  and  air  and  sunshine"  is  ours  to  enjoy, 
and  that  is  why  you  hear,  not  wild,  but  scientific, 
denunciations  of  its  private  possession  as  capital 
by  the  few  to  exploit  labor.  That  is  whv  we  are 
calling  on  those  who  recognize  this  injustice  and 
those  who  are  victims  of  it,  to  unite,  to  cast  off  the 
scales  from  their  eyes,  that  they  may  see  that  it 
is  theirs  to  enjoy,  when  they  lose  their  chains, 
which  their  ignorance  binds,  and  which  your  class 
seeks  to  weld  more  firmly.  When  they  refuse 
>  our  services  and  unite  with  their  class  at  the  bal- 
lot box,  to  strike  for  the  possession  of  what  is 
theirs  to  enjoy,  thev  will  get  it.  Then  will  be  real- 
ized a  quotation  which  your  class  has  convenient- 
ly overlooked,  "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens," 
and  the  burdens  will  be  light  indeed,  especially 
for  those  who  now  drag  the  chains  of  wage  sla- 
very. Work  and  vote  with  the  Socialists  to  bring 
such  a  condition  about. 


HOW  CAPITALISM  REDEEMS  ITS  PRE- 
ELECTION PROMISES. 

Shortly  after  the  shouts  of  triumph  over  Re- 
pubHcan  victory  died  away,  and  long  before  the 
ballots  registering  the  endorsement  of  the  "full 
dinner-pail"  policy  had  been  counted,  McKinley's 
native  State  contributed  the  following  significant 
comment  upon  the  folly  of  the  dupes  of  capital- 
ism: 

Steubenville,  O.,  Nov.  8,  1900. — The  man- 
agement of  the  National  Steel  Co.'s  Mingo  Junc- 
tion plant,  to-day  offered  the  men  a  new  scale  of 
wages  that  makes  reductions  in  the  existing  rates 
of  from  20  to  61  per  cent.  The  new  scale  is  based 
upon  new  methods  of  working,  which  makes 
twelve  hours  a  day's  work,  and  renders  the  tasks 
so  hard  that  none  but  the  biggest  men  can  stand 
the  twelve  hours'  strain.  The  offer  of  the  new 
scale  comes  of  the  determination  of  the  company 
to  resume  operations,  after  being  closed  six 
months.  The  mills  have  been  surrounded  by  a 
high  board  fence  surmounted  by  electric  wires 
and  spikes.  Everything  is  ready  for  a  fight,  as  it 
is  expected  that  the  men  will  resist  the  reduction.. 
— Chicago  Record. 

Let  us  see:  What  bait  was  it  that  the  Repub- 
lican politicians  held  out  to  the  working  men  be- 
fore election  ?  What  was  the  printed  legend  with 
which  thousands  of  bill-boards  and  fences  were 
decorated  in  the  interests  of  McKinley  and  Roose- 
velt ?    What  motto  did  the  numerous  "Working- 


HOW  CAPITALISM  REDEEMS  PROMISES  43 

men's  Republican  Clubs"  plaster  upon  the  win- 
dows of  their  club  rooms,  and  hand  across  the 
streets  of  our  great  cities?  Was  it  not  "Prosper- 
ity, Plenty  of  Work  and  High  Wages?"  And 
now  the  National  Steel  Co.  starts  in  to  redeem 
the  promise  in  true  capitalistic  fashion.  As  was 
foretold  by  Socialists,  weeks  prior  to  the  election, 
the  necessity  for  "re-adjustment"  of  wages  would 
dawn  upon  the  capitalist  class  immediately  after 
Nov.  6.  And  here  it  comes.  Twenty  to  sixty  per 
cent  reduction,  on  the  existing  rates  and  a  "new 
method  of  working."  Thus  do  the  crafty  owners 
of  the  means  of  production  make  good  the  first 
article  in  their  promise.  The  new  arrangement 
undoubtedly  means  prosperity  for  them.  Regard- 
ing the  second  clause  in  the  pre-election  promise, 
dealing  with  "plenty  of  work,"  no  one  can  justly 
accuse  the  owners  of  the  means  of  production  of 
neglecting  the  fulfillment  of  this  invaluable  privi- 
lege. If  the  "new  methods,"  involving  "twelve 
hours"  and  a  task  so  hard  that  "none  but  the 
strongest  men  can  stand  the  strain,"  does  not  fill 
the  bill  in  every  respect,  the  working  men  who 
voted  for  it  are  certainly  hard  to  please. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  measure  of  "plenty 
of  work"  is  to  be  kept  "heaped  full  and  running 
over."  As  to  the  workers,  their  share  is  the  fight, 
for  which  we  are  told  "everything  is  ready,"  so 
far  at  least  as  the  other  party  is  concerned.  The 
electric  wires  and  spikes  are  all  in  place,  the  work- 
ing men  who  are  "expected  to  resist"  have  gra- 
ciously "left  themselves  naked  to  their  enemies," 
the  police,   militia,   regulars,   judges,   and   every 


44  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

Other  power  in  the  land  are  standing  by  ready  to 
supplement  the  efforts  of  the  National  Steel  Co., 
in  case  the  electric  wires,  spikes,  etc.,  fail  to  suffi- 
ciently protect  the  property  of  the  prosperous 
ones  from  the  blind  attacks  of  the  dupes  whom 
they  had  lured  into  disarming  themselves  through 
promises  of  ''high  wages"  and  ''full  dinner- 
pails."  Yes,  "everything  is  ready."  Let  the  bat- 
tle commence  at  once.  Perhaps  the  vanquished 
will  learn  that  in  their  anxiety  "not  to  throw  their 
votes  away,"  they  have  in  reality  not  only  thrown 
themselves  defenceless,  but  actually  armed  those 
whom  they  proposed  to  fight.  By  all  means  let 
the  scrap  proceed.  There  is  nothing  to  it.  Capi- 
talism wins  in  a  walk. 


NO  HOPE  FOR  THE  TRAVELING  MEN. 

Baltimore,  ^Md.,  Oct.  i6,  1900. — Theodore  Mar- 
burg, the  capitahst,  and  brother  of  \Vm.  ^Marburg, 
of  the  tobacco  trust,  dehvered  a  speech  on  trusts 
at  a  meeting  of  commercial  travelers  here,  yester- 
day, which  caused  a  sensation.  He  said,  in  part : 
"1  have  little  consolation  to  offer  the  traveling 
man.  There  is  nothing  at  present  that  indicates 
his  rehabilitation.  To  talk  of  abolishing  trusts 
is  as  idle  as  to  talk  of  abolishing  newspapers,  or 
of  breaking  up  the  great  trunk  Imes  and  restoring 
the  many  small  systems  that  previously  existed. 
''The  trust  was  born  primarily  of  the  fierce  com- 
petition between  American  manufacturers.  If 
the  tariff  in  any  way  conduced  to  it,  it  was  only 
by  building  up  manufactures  in  America  and 
providing  the  conditions  for  competition.  It  was 
the  competition,  not  the  tariff,  which  produces  the 
trusts."  As  at  present  loosely  organized,  the 
trusts  present  many  objectionable  features.  These 
can  be  in  a  measure  removed  by  organizing  the 
trusts  under  a  national  law.  We  can  demand  of 
them  publicity  of  accounts.  We  can  recover  for 
the  people  a  part  of  their  profit  in  the  form  of 
public  revenue. 

The  displacement  of  the  traveling  man  is  the 
result  of  an  economic  movement  quite  disconnect- 
ed from  politics.  He  will  not  better  his  condition 
by  voting  for  Bryan.  What  Bryan's  victory  would 
involve  would  be  a  great  business  depression, 
which  would  simply  deprive  the  traveling  man 


46  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

of  what  opportunity  he  may  now  possess  to  find 
employment  in  other  fields."  Marburg  came  into 
prominence  in  politics  after  the  Republicans  had 
won  the  State  and  elected  Lowndes  Governor  and 
Hooper  Mayor. 

'The  average  commercial  traveler  fears  that  he 
will  lose  his  grip  if  the  trust  mania  is  not  stopped 
soon." — Buffalo  News. 

Well,  what  of  it?  Is  not  the  job  looking  for 
the  man,"  as  McKinley  said  ? 

If  the  commercial  man  does  lose  his  grip,  can  he 
not  get  a  grip  on  something  else,  say  a  pick  and 
shovel,  for  instance?  Average  labor  is  in  de- 
mand, is  it  not  ?  No  man  who  really  wants  work 
need  remain  idle,  at  least  we  have  heard  that  re- 
mark made  so  often  that  there  must  be  some  foun- 
dation for  it.  What  is  the  matter  with  the  com- 
mercial traveler,  anyhow  ?  He  is  a  hustler.  Then 
let  him  get  out  and  hustle.  This  is  a  free  country, 
where  a  man  can  always  sell  his  labor  power,  pro- 
viding he  can  find  a  purchaser.  If  the  drummer 
fails  in  this,  the  only  suggestion  we  can  offer  him 
is  that  he  get  a  grip  on  the  principles  of  Social- 
ism, and  then  the  "trust  mania"  will  not  trouble 
him  any  longer.  But  whatever  he  may  think  now, 
''to  this  conclusion  must  he  come  at  last." 

VICTIMS  OF  TRUSTS. 

The  coal  trust  keeps  wages  down  and  the  other 
trusts  force  the  cost  of  living  up. 

"The  cry  of  agony  that  goes  up  from  the  great 
anthracite  coal  fields  is  a  cry  wrung  from  the 
white  lips  of  a  ruined  people,  against  the  heartless 


NO    HOPE   FOR   THE   TRAVELING    MEN  47 

trusts.  While  the  miners  are  making  ready  for  a 
struggle  that  may  fill  the  cemeteries  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  bring  sorrow  and  privation  to  half  a 
million  persons,  the  newspapers  owned  or  con- 
trolled by  the  mine  owners  are  slandering  the  men 
and  their  leaders  and  treating  their  grievances 
with  jesting  scorn.  I  have  been  going  from  mine 
to  mine,  in  the  company  of  Homer  Davenport, 
the  Journal's  distinguished  cartoonist,  in  an  hon- 
est effort  to  give  the  actual  facts  to  the  whole 
country. 

"We  have  eaten  in  the  cabins  of  the  miners  and 
have,  in  every  case,  gone  to  original  sources  for 
information.     The  miners  themselves  and  their 
wives  and  children  are  the  best  witnesses.    Noth- 
ing I  have  to  say  is  based  upon  the  statements  or 
arguments    of    labor    agitators.     But    the    one 
mighty  fact  which  stands  forth  in  this  scene  of 
I   confusion  and  penury  is  the  appalling  changes 
I*  which  the  trusts  have  worked  in  the  condition  of 
the   mining  population   within  two  years.     The 
strike  is  simply  an  industrial  hemorrhage.     It  is  a 
I  local  symptom  of  a  disease  that  is  attacking  the 
I  whole  body.     I  find  as  an  established  fact,  which 
[  may  be  investigated  and  verified  in  an  afternoon 
j   by  any  citizen  who  cares  enough  for  his  country 
to  take  the  trouble,  that  the  trusts  have  so  in- 
creased the  costs  of  living  that  the  miners  of  the 
great  anthracite  coal  region  have  been  forced  to 
give  their  wives  and  children  less  to  eat  and  less 
to  wear  in  order  to  make  their  wages  cover  their 
expenses. 

"The  coal  trust  keeps  the  miners'  wages  down, 


48  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

while  the  other  trusts  keep  forcing  the  cost  of 
Hving  up.  The  result  of  this  scientific  squeezing 
is  dreadful  to  contemplate.  The  coal  railroad 
stock  and  bondholders  and  the  mine  holders  are 
making  greater  profits  than  ever.  But  the  min- 
ing population  is  sinking  into  a  condition  of  hope- 
less semi-starvation.  Decent  miners  are  com- 
pelled to  send  children  ten  and  twelve  years  of  age 
to  work  in  the  blackened  breakers.  There  is  no 
help  for  it.  With  the  trust  closing  in  around  the 
miners'  homes  from  opposite  directions,  he  must 
send  his  little  ones  to  slave  in  the  mines  or  let 
them  starve.  Can  the  American  look  unmoved 
upon  this  unequal  contest  between  a  multitude  of 
hard-pressed  miners  and  the  trust  system  ?  Have 
sordid  influences  so  deadened  and  perverted  us 
that  our  sympathies  will  not  quicken  at  the  sight 
of  so  much  undeserved  and  preventable  suffering? 
Is  the  cry  of  half  a  million  persons  in  anguish 
and  industrial  bondage  to  be  answered  by  a  sneer 
or  a  jest,  or  a  cheap  accusation  that  the  proposed 
strike  is  inspired  by  political  motives?  Accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Davenport,  I  visited  many  of  the 
mining  settlements  in  the  neighborhood  of  Ha- 
zleton.  Near  McAdoo  is  the  gray  huddle  of 
crooked  shanties,  known  as  Old  Honey  Brook. 
The  distant  landscape  is  green  and  pleasant  to 
look  upon,  and  the  fragrance  of  the  pines  comes 
faintly  over  the  stark  hills  of  coal  refuse  and  the 
gloomy  chasms  that  surround  the  wretched  place. 
Little  rills  of  dirty  water  trickle  among  ihe  shan- 
ties, and  goats  and  geese  wander  here  and  there 
in  the  sun-scorched  stretches  of  sprawling  streets. 


NO    HOPE   FOR   THE   TRAVELING   MEN  49 

The  shanties  are  old  and  full  of  cracks  and  cran- 
nies, yet  they  are  crowded  with  men,  women  and 
children.  We  were  in  one  of  those  dread  theaters 
of  want  and  death,  in  which  human  greed,  work- 
ing through  the  trust  system,  damns  and  denies 
the  claims  of  civilization  on  American  soil.  We 
were  there  to  learn  the  truth  and  to  teli  it.  From 
house  to  house  we  went.  There  was  not  a  person 
in  Old  Honey  Brook  so  lacking  in  intelligence  that 
the  cruel  lesson  of  the  trust  system  had  not  been 
learned.  In  the  street  we  met  a  brown-skinned 
Hungarian  woman,  whose  husband  worked  in  the 
nearest  mine,  while  she  worked  as  a  baker.  She 
was  a  clear-eyed,  intelligent  woman,  prematurely 
aged  by  toil,  bare-footed  and  dressed  in  the  cheap- 
est of  gingham.  'Yes,'  she  said,  'it  costs  a  quarter 
more  to  live  than  it  did  a  year  or  a  year  and  a 
half  ago.  Everything  is  dearer — meat,  flour,  cof- 
fee, sugar,  tea,  tobacco,  clothes,  shoes  and  oil.  My 
husband  gets  no  more  wages  than  he  did  when 
prices  were  low.'  Presently  we  were  seated  at  the 
table  of  a  veteran  miner,  with  his  wife  and  three 
daughters.  The  whole  trust  question,  stripped  of 
its  mask,  was  laid  bare  in  a  few  minutes. 

''All  the  statesmen  and  hair-splitting  doctrinar- 
ies  who  serve  at  the  shrine  of  the  trust  were  an- 
swered in  that  humble  place.  'Here,'  said  the  old 
miner,  turning  to  his  wife,  'tell  these  gentlemen 
what  the  trusts  have  done  for  us,  and  they  will  tell 
the  American  people  about  it.  Give  them  the 
prices  the  trusts  make  us  pay  for  the  necessaries 
of  life.  It  is  about  the  same  in  the  mining  region, 
I  suppose,  as  in  the  rest  of  the  country.    Wages 


50  CAPITAL  AND  L.\EOR 

have  not  risen.  We  were  just  able  to  live  on  our 
wages  before,  but  the  trusts  have  lifted  the  prices 
so  high  that  most  of  us  have  to  eat  less.  I  could 
not  live  if  my  son  and  two  of  my  daughters  were 
not  working.  No  married  man  with  children  can 
live  on  a  coal  miners'  wages  now,  unless  his  chil- 
dren work,  too.'  The  miner's  wife  gave  me  a 
list  of  prices  showing  how  the  trusts  have  raised 
the  cost  of  living." — Jas.  Creelman,  in  the  New 
York  Journal. 

SKETCH  OF  THE  HELLISH  CONDITIONS  PREVAILING 
IN  THE  COAL  REGIONS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

(Drawn  from  a  capitalistic  source.) 
The  following  account,  taken  from  "Public 
Ownership,"  is  by  far  the  best  we  have  yet  seen 
of  the  great  miner's  strike.  The  facts  are  taken 
verbatim  from  the  report  of  the  capitalistic  Pub- 
lishers' Association :  "The  story  of  the  grievances 
and  sufferings  of  the  miners  of  Wyoming  valley 
would  fill  a  book :  The  chief  grievances  may  be 
summed  up  as  follows :  The  company  stores.' 
They  are  unlawful  under  a  special  definite  statute 
of  Pennsylvania.  The  companies  deny  that  such 
a  thing  as  the  company  stores  exists,  but  it  is  a 
mere  juggling  of  words,  as  they  are  called  'sup- 
ply' stores.  The  stores  supply  the  miners  with 
the  necessaries  of  life  and  the  account  is  deducted 
from  the  men's  wages  at  the  end  of  each  month. 
The  prices  in  company  or  'supply'  stores  range 
from  lo  to  40  per  cent  higher  than  in  outside 
stores — a  fair  average  would  be  25  per  cent.  The 
men  do  not  have  to  deal  with  the  supply  stores  if 


NO   HOPE   FOR  THE  TRAVELING   MEN  5 1 

they  think  they  can  buy  cheaper  elsewhere,  say 
the  operators.  '  But  it  is  a  fact  that  the  man  who 
persists  in  deaHng  elsewhere  suffers  excessive 
dockage,  is  given  bad  breasts  to  work  in,  is  limit- 
ed on  cars,  and  in  a  dozen  other  ways  is  disci- 
plined. 

'*  'The  monthly  payment  of  wages.'  The  opera- 
tors say  it  is  done  to  keep  the  men  from  squander- 
ing their  money.  There  is  a  statute  in  Pennsyl- 
vania requiring  that  all  laboring  men  be  paid  at 
least  once  in  two  weeks.  There  seems  to  be  a 
law  here  to  cover  every  one  of  the  men's  com- 
plaints, but  the  companies  appear  to  regard  stat- 
utes, as  applied  to  them,  in  the  light  of  jokes. 
The  only  other  explanation  heard  for  the  failure 
to  pay  twice  a  month  is  that  it  saves  book-keeping 
and  thus  obviates  a  lot  of  expense  and  trouble  for 
the  operators  and  company  stores. 

**  The  mine  bosses.' 

They  have  almost  dictatorial  power ;  they  abuse 
that  power.  They  are  kings  away  down  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth.  Some  of  these  bosses  go  so 
far  as  to  compel  their  subordinates  to  suffer  in- 
dignities which  would  make  a  Zulu  commit  sui- 
cide. It  is  a  shameful  thing  to  write — but  right 
here,  in  Scranton,  a  city  of  100,000  inhabitants, 
there  is  at  least  one  mine  boss  who  uses  his  little 
brief  authority  to  compel  his  men  to  yield  to  his 
desires  their  wives  and  daughters.  It  is  W.  B. 
Colver,  the  reporter  for  the  Publishers'  Press, 
who  makes  this  statement  (not  a  'wild-eyed'  So- 
cialist). 

"Docking  and  Measuring." 


52  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

The  operators  say,  that  "wages  are  the  same 
now  as  they  always  have  been ;  that  is,  a  man  gets 
as  much  per  ton."  But  a  car  is  a  "ton."  And  for 
years  the  cars  have  been  steadily  growing  larger. 
There  have  been  strikes  or  threats  of  strikes  and 
the  operators  have  granted  concessions.  Straight- 
way an  extra  two  or  three  inches  of  plank  is  add- 
ed to  the  sideboards  of  the  car.  The  Pennsylvania 
statutes  declare  that  a  miner's  ton  shall  be  2,240 
pounds.  The  cars  now  in  use  hold  3,400  pounds 
and  must  be  heaped  up  four  and  six  inches  high, 
so  that  after  taking  away  the  slate  and  dirt  the 
company  has  one  and  one-half  tons  of  clean,  mar- 
ketable coal.  For  mining  this  the  men  get  on  an 
average  92  cents  per  car.  That  is  how  the  coal  is 
measured.  Then  comes  the  dockage.  After  a  car 
has  been  filled,  it  is  hoisted  out  of  the  mine  to  the 
top  of  the  breaker.  Here  it  is  dumped.  The 
breaker  boss,  who  is  another  despot  as  tyrannical 
as  the  mine  boss,  has  a  docking  clerk  at  the  top 
of  the  breaker.  This  man — often  one  who  has 
never  been  in  a  mine  and  knows  nothing  about  the 
business — glances  at  the  car  of  coal,  or  fails  to 
glance  at  it,  if  he  sees  fit,  and  marks  on  the  board 
'half  car  docked,  or  'quarter  car  docked,'  as  he 
sees  fit.  The  men  are  docked  about  15  or  25  per 
cent,  and  sometimes  much  more,  on  all  the  coal 
they  dig.  'Short  time  and  division  of  labor.' 
This,  next  to  the  powder  grievance,  is  the  chief 
complaint  of  men.  Of  course  the  inhuman  in- 
dignity to  wife  and  daughter  cannot  be  classed 
nor  compared  to  ordinary  evils.  The  men  go  into 
the  mines  at  6  130  or  7  o'clock  in  the  morning. 


NO    HOPE   FOR   THE   TRAVELING    MEN  53 

The  manager  or  superintendent  orders  that  a  cer- 
tain number  of  cars  be  sent  down  to  be  filled  that 
day.  If  there  are  a  hundred  men  and  three  hun- 
dred cars,  one  would  suppose  that  each  one  would 
get  three,  but  not  so.  One  boss  may  do  as  he  sees 
fit.  and  he  does.  His  favorites  get  the  easy-work- 
ing 'breasts,'  or  faces.  They  also  may  get  eight 
or  ten  cars  to  fill  for  their  day's  work,  while  the 
luckless  miners,  objects  of  the  bosses'  dislike,  are 
sent  to  a  hard,  narrow  tunnel,  and  may  get  but  a 
single  car  for  the  day.  When  that  car  is  full  they 
must  stop.  Each  miner  has  a  helper  who  is  paid 
bv  the  day.  The  helper's  time  goes  on,  wdiether 
the  miner  has  one  car  or  ten,  so  that  it  may  hap- 
pen that  a  miner  is  actually  poorer  when  he  quits 
work  than  when  he  began.  One  miner  showed 
me  his  statement  for  the  last  two  weeks  in  April. 
He  got  $4.27  for  the  two  weeks'  work.  The  same 
man  got  yy  cents  for  the  first  half  of  June,  and 
$9.75  is  the  best  he  has  made  in  any  two  weeks 
for  four  months.  Xo  matter  when  the  men  get 
their  cars  filled,  they  must  stay  in  the  mine,  in 
black,  stifiing,  damp  and  chilly  solitude  until  time 
for  closing  the  mines.  ]\Iany  a  man  sits  crouched 
in  his  tunnel  six  hours  for  the  privilege  of  work- 
ing three  hours. 

"The  'Powder  Question'  is  a  most  serious  one. 
The  men  are  charged  $2.75  per  keg  for  powder 
that  costs  ninety  cents.  That  powder  may  mine 
them  less  than  enough  to  pay  for  itself.  That  all 
depends  upon  the  mine  boss.  The  men  are  al- 
lowed to  work  one,  two,  three,  or  four  days  a 
week,  half  a  day  or  all  day,  or  not  at  all,  as  the 


54  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

operators  may  decide,  but  they  must  report  for 
duty  every  day." 

Read  this,  wage  workers,  industrial  slaves,  and 
reading  it,  remember  that  your  day  is  coming 
when  the  same  conditions  shall  environ  you  that 
now  impress  the  members  of  your  great  class  who 
wrest  the  black  diamonds  from  the  bosom  of 
Mother  Earth,  to  heat  your  homes  and  drive  the 
machines  you  are  permitted  to  attend.  Think  of 
the  inhumanities  that  capitalism  prompts — yea-, 
compels  men  to  practice  upon  their  kind.  Con- 
ceive, if  you  can,  the  condition  that  compels  men 
to  sacrifice  their  wives  and  daughters  for  a  mere 
privilege  of  working  for  a  bare  existence  for  the 
pittance  of  yy  cents  for  two  weeks'  work.  Real- 
ize that  if  something  is  not  done,  it  will  not  be 
long  until  that  sum  will  measure  your  wages,  and 
that  your  wives  and  daughters  will  be  the  price 
of  the  opportunity  to  "earn"  even  this. 

And  now,  lest  there  still  linger  in  your  mind  a 
suspicion  that  there  are  no  classes,  in  "this  great, 
free  country,"  read  the  continuation  of  the  press 
reporter's  account  of  the  miner's  distressing  con- 
dition. Learn  whether  or  not  there  are  classes 
and  class  interests :  "It  is  known  that  the  Retail 
Dealers'  Association  of  the  entire  district  has 
agreed  to  cut  off  all  credit  as  soon  as  the  strike 
begins.  This  is  because  they  have  been  notified 
by  the  wholesalers  that  the  retailers  themselves 
can  expect  no  credit."  Of  course  the  company 
stores  will  shut  down  on  the  men  at  once. 

Now,  perhaps  you  will  know  that  the  capital- 
ists are  class-conscious.     The  big  merchants  cut 


NO    HOPE   FOR   THE   TRAVELING   MEN  55 

off  the  credit  of  the  small  retailers,  and  force  them 
to  shut  down  on  their  customers  (in  this  case,  the 
striking  miners),  in  order  to  starve  the  latter 
into  submission  to  the  exactions  of  the  mine  own- 
ers and  operators,  who  are  members  of  the  capi- 
talist class  to  which  the  big  wholesalers  belong. 
Oh,  no,  there  are  no  classes,  and  the  capitalists 
are  not  class-conscious. 

Wage  workers,  organized  and  unorganized,  do 
you  see  ?  What  is  there  left  for  you  to  do  but  to 
unite,  class-conscious  yourselves,  in  a  political 
party — ready  at  your  hand,  the  Socialist  party — 
and  on  the  political  field,  where  numbers  count, 
wrest  from  your  exploiters  the  means  whereby 
they  oppress  you  ?  Take  the  reins  of  government 
and  direct  its  course  to  the  Co-operative  Com- 
monwealth, where  all  may  labor  who  will,  and 
none  shall  eat  who  will  not,  where  wealth  will 
belong  to  its  makers ;  and  drones  and  industrial 
despots  will  be  known  no  more.  Strike  on  the 
industrial  .field,  because  you  must,  but  strike  at 
the  ballot-box  because  there  your  strike  will  win. 
Vote  that  the  government  shall  own  the  mines, 
and  that  men's  wives  and  daughters  shall  be  pre- 
served in  chastity,  and  health,  for  on  this  rock 
rests  the  future  welfare  of  man. 


THE  CAPITALISTIC  LAW  OF  ''NATURAL 
SELECTION"  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO 
THE  LABOR  MARKET. 

The  Pueblo  Courier,  in  speaking  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the  raih-oad  employes  in  Colorado,  has  the 
following:  ''The  examination  of  railroad  employes 
is  becoming  so  severe  as  to  arouse  a  good  deal  of 
complaint  and  discontent,  so  rigid  are  the  rules 
now  that  many  men  who  have  given  their  lives  to 
the  railroad  service  are  finding  themselves  out  of 
a  job,  and,  being  unfit  for  any  other  avocation,  are 
drifting  dangerously  near  the  poorhouse.  Of 
course  it  is  necessary  to  look  to  the  safety  of  the 
traveling  public,  but  what  consideration  is  the 
railroader  receiving?  The  company  or  the  State 
can  look  out  for  the  welfare  of  the  passenger,  but 
are  impotent  to  assure  a  good  condition  for  old 
employes  who  are  willing  to  work.  The  condition 
is  getting  to  be  a  serious  question  to  railroad  men, 
and  many  are  thinking  about  changing  the  com- 
petitive system  to  one  of  co-operation,  under 
which  all  human  beings  will  be  assured  of  the  op- 
portunity of  labor  and  a  decent  livelihood." 

Within  this  short  paragraph  we  may  find 
a  complete  illustration  in  one  particular  in- 
dustry, of  the  conditions  which  exist  essentially 
in  all,  and  which  are  certainly  forcing,  as  the  para- 
graph says,  "many  to  think  about  changing  the 
competitive  system  to  one  of  co-operation."  It 
shows  conclusively  that  labor  power  is  a  commod- 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET    57 

ity  to  be  bought  on  the  market,  the  rigid  examina- 
tion complained  of  being  merely  the  capitalist 
method  of  selecting  the  most  suitable  raw  material 
which  that  market  affords.  The  labor  power  which 
has  been  used  continuously  in  this  industry,  and 
which  is  now  being  superseded  by  more  efficient 
labor  power,  finds  a  complete  analogy  in  the  anti- 
quated and  worn-out  locomotives  and  other  rolling 
stock  which  now  lie  unused  on  the  scrap  piles  of 
the  railroad  companies,  after  being  replaced  by 
more  efficient  machinery  of  production  of  the  same 
nature  and  for  the  same  purpose.  ''It  is  necessary 
to  look  to  the  safety  of  the  traveling  public." 
Why,  certainly.  That  is  the  source  from  which 
dividends  materialize.  But  the  same  necessity 
also  compels  the  company  to  supersede  their  old 
employes,  by  younger,  stronger  and  more  efficient 
ones,  for  exactly  the  same  reason. 

The  "traveling  public,"  in  this  case,  may  be 
said  to  be  the  passive  factor,  while  the  labor  pow- 
er, applied  to  the  transportation  of  their  persons 
or  goods,  is  the  active  one  in  the  wealth  produc- 
tions of  railroads.  It  is  necessary,  if  the  best  re- 
sults (measured  in  dividends),  are  to  be  attained, 
that  the  active  factor  be  at  least  equal  in  efficiency 
to  the  average  labor  power,  or,  if  possible,  above 
it.  Consequently  the  old  employe  finds  himself 
''drifting  dangerously  near  the  poorhouse,"  just 
as  the  old  locomotive  gravitates  towards  its  final 
resting  place  on  the  scrap  heap.  And  herein  lies 
the  difference  between  the  employe  and  the  worn- 
out  machine — the  former  can  think.  And  as  he 
"drifts"  he  thinks,  and  his  thoughts  will  neces- 


58  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

sarily  turn  towards  Socialism,  as  those  of  his 
masters  did  towards  supplanting  him  by  more 
profitable  labor  power  when  his  efficiency  fell  be- 
low normal.  Yes,  conditions,  and  conditions  alone, 
move  the  masses  of  men  to  think,  and  that  think- 
ing always  has  for  its  object  the  material  interests 
of  the  thinker.  The  utter  indifference  with  which 
the  capitalist  abandons  his  worn-out  tools  to  star- 
vation will  be  met  with  an  equal  indifference  upon 
the  part  of  the  exploited  ones  towards  any  alleged 
''rights"  in  the  means  of  production  which  the 
capitalist,  through  "legal"  ownership,  regards  as 
his  individual  private  property. 

CAPITALISM  DECIDES  THE  FATE  OF  THE  MAN  OVER 

FORTY. 

It  may  not  be  a  very  original  remark,  or  one 
that  adds  anything  to  the  general  stock  of  human 
knowledge,  to  observe  that  there  is  one  thing 
which  every  individual  human  being,  without  ex- 
ception, is  doing  at  the  same  time,  that  is,  growing 
old.  In  the  Chicago  Chronicle  of  July  8th,  1900, 
an  editorial,  entitled,  ''Shall  We  Asphyxiate 
Them  ?"  appears.  It  deals  with  the  man  who  has 
passed  the  age  of  forty,  and  for  whom  it  states 
that  the  commercial  world  has  no  possible  use, 
while  younger  and  more  vigorous  manhood  can 
be  procured  to  carry  on  the  work  of  the  world. 
As  the  man  over  forty  has  the  same  physical  ne- 
cessities of  food,  clothing  and  shelter,  as  his  fel- 
lowmen  who  have  not  yet  attained  the  undesirable 
age,  and  as  his  forty  years  are  coming  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  positive  drawback  to  his  capacity  for 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET    59 

making  profit  for  the  other  fellow,  the  Chronicle 
interrogates  its  readers  as  to  what  shall  be  clone 
with  the  man  who  has  passed  two  score,  and,  true 
to  its  capitalist  nature,  assuming  that  the  present 
economic  system  is  permanent,  sarcastically  in- 
quires whether  we  shall  asphyxiate  him. 

Whether  the  man  over  forty  would  peacefully 
submit  to  this  process,  and  who  the  *'we"  are  who 
are  proposed  as  his  executioners,  the  Chronicle 
does  not  inform  us.  But  as  the  owner  of  that  pa- 
per is  a  banker  (who,  by  the  way,  indorsed  the 
Building  Contractors  in  their  fight  against  the 
Trades'  Union),  it  is  fair  to  conclude  that  the 
"we"  in  this  case  implies  the  capitalist,  the  em- 
ploying class,  the  same  fellows  to  whom  the  man 
past  forty  vainly  applies  for  work,  and  who, 
knowing  that  his  profit-making  power  is  impaired 
by  age,  and  that  if  he  lives  he  must  still  be  fed, 
thus  reducing  their  profits,  propose  that  he  shall 
be  deprived  of  his  (to  them)  useless  life. 

But  let  the  Chronicle  speak  for  itself :  '^Another 
great  railroad  corporation  has  pronounced  against 
old  men,  not  such  very  old  men,  either,  for  the  in- 
hibition extended  to  men  over  forty.  The  man 
who  has  reached  that  age  may  not  be  newly  em- 
ployed in  any  capacity.  The  company  will  not, 
however,  discharge  him  if  he  is  already  in  its  em- 
ploy. This  much  concession  to  old  and  faithful 
servants.  But  other  corporations  are  not  so  con- 
siderate. Instances  are  numerous  and  well  known 
of  wholesale  discharges  of  old  men.  The  em- 
ployer is  usually  frank  about  it.  He  declares  that 
he  can  get  more  and  better  work  out  of  young 


60  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

men  than  he  can  of  old  men.  He  is  in  business 
to  make  money,  and  not  from  philanthropic  mo- 
tives. Hence  he  proposes  to  get  the  most  work 
for  the  least  money  whenever  he  can.  That  is 
the  business  view  of  it.  He  does  not  desire  to  mix 
charity  with  business.  A  Chicago  philosopher  of 
some  reputation  once  declared,  after  profound  re- 
flection, that  every  man  who  reaches  the  age  of 
forty  should  be  taken  out  and  killed,  but  he  based 
his  conclusion  not  upon  the  uselessness  of  such 
men,  but  upon  the  theory  that  at  the  age  of  two 
score  ''men  become  satisfied  with  the  status  quo 
and  are  consequently  clogs  upon  the  chariot 
wheels  of  progress."  But  whether  the  philoso- 
pher was  right  or  wrong,  there  is  some  reason  to 
anticipate  that  we  may  eventually  have  to  adopt 
this  program.  It  would  be  cruel  to  allow  the  vet- 
erans of  forty  and  over  to  starve  to  death,  and  it 
is  likely  to  be  a  heavy  charge  to  feed  them.  The 
obvious  expedient  is,  put  them  out  of  the  way  as 
dogs  are  dispatched  by  the  pound-keeper.  For 
business  is  business.  The  "survival  of  the  fittest" 
means  the  fittest  up  to  thirty-nine  years  old.  The 
others  are  out  of  it." 

This  sarcastically  proposed  remedy  is,  strange 
as  it  may  seem  to  a  superficial  observer,  thorough- 
ly logical  from  the  point  of  view  of  such  organs  of 
capitalism  as  the  Chronicle,  and  it  is  an  ominous 
sign  of  the  inevitable  bankruptcy  of  that  accused 
system.  The  Chronicle  desires  to  maintain  capi- 
talism and  capitalism  robs  the  working  man  of 
his  labor  power  during  his  prime,  and  then  at 
forty  turns  him  adrift.     The  Republican  robbers 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET    6l 

recognize  this  difficulty,  and  make  a  pretended  at- 
tempt to  meet  it  by  some  vain  talk  of  an  old  age 
pension,  but  that  simply  means  (if  it  has  any 
meaning,  taking  into  account  those  who  propose 
it),  that  the  superannuated  workman  must  be  fed 
at  the  expense  of  the  capitalist  class,  and  "busi- 
ness is  business,"  as  the  Chronicle  remarks.  The 
problem  is  not  solved  and  the  proposition  for  as- 
phyxiation still  stands. 

True  to  their  class  interests,  the  capitalist  press 
always  considers  such  questions  from  their  class 
standpoint.     That  their  proposed  victims  should 
ever  take  the  initiative  in  averting  their  own  de- 
struction by  overthrowing  the  system  which  pre- 
sents this  puzzle  to  their  masters,  is  never  even 
hinted  at.    But  the  Socialist  will  see  to  it  that  this 
"problem"  is  removed  from  the  consideration  of 
the  capitalist  by  continually  urging  the  removal 
of  the  causes  which  bring  it  into  existence.    They 
will  relieve  the  Republicans  and  Democrats  of  the 
trouble  of  solving  it,  by  asphyxiation  or  other- 
wise.   To  the  working  men  for  whom  this  para- 
graph  is   printed   we  would   say:  You,   like   all 
other  men,  grow  old.    When  past  forty,  you  will 
be  a  ''problem"  for  your  masters,  candidates  for 
possible  asphyxiation,  or  probable  starvation,  both 
of  which  are  perhaps  more  likely  than  that  you 
will  become  the  recipient  of  an  old  age  pension — 
for  that  leaves  the  "problem"  still  there.  Although 
your  masters  speak  sarcastically  in  considering 
your  fate  in  the  future,  the  "problem"  is,  after 
all,  for  yourselves  to  solve.     When  you  under- 
stand its' terms  vou  will  see  that  it  means  a  strug- 


62  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

gle  for  existence.  That  you  will  quietly  get  off 
the  earth  at  the  bidding  of  your  masters  is  not 
very  probable.  You  will  have  to  see  as  they  do, 
that  "business  is  business,"  and  that  your  particu- 
lar business  is  to  stay  on  the  earth  as  long  as  you 
can,  even  if  you  have  to  kick  the  self-appointed 
arbiters  of  your  destiny  off  it,  in  order  to  remain 
upon  it  yourselves.  You  can  cease  to  be  a  ''prob- 
lem" for  their  consideration,  only  by  joining  with 
your  fellow-workmen  for  the  abolition  of  the  sys- 
tem which  throws  your  worn-out  body  on  the 
streets  to  starve,  when  your  masters  can  no  longer 
extract  the  average  profit  from  it. 

In  deliberating  thus  upon  how  to  dispose  of 
you,  'they  in  reality  give  you  your  choice  between 
asphyxiation  or  starvation  on  the  one  hand,  and 
socialism  on  the  other.  Which  will  you  have? 
As  your  masters  say,  "It  is  the  survival  of  the  fit- 
test." Are  you  fit?  Are  you  going  out  at  thirty- 
nine,  or  would  you  like  to  stay  and  see  the  show  a 
little  longer? 

Capitalism  is  the  only  issue  before  the  Ameri- 
can people,  and  before  every  other  people  of  west- 
ern civilization.  It  can  be  met  by  one  principle 
only — Socialism.  Either  capitalists  and  capital 
will  own  the  people  or  the  people  v/ill  own  the  so- 
cial capital.  The  trusts  will  own  the  masses,  or 
the  masses  will  own  the  trusts.  The  former  is 
capitalism;  the  latter  Socialism.  On  a  thousand 
details  we  may  differ,  and  many  such  details  will 
have  to  be  threshed  out,  but  on  the  fundamental 
principle  those  who  care  for  men  before  the 
money   must   and  will   unite.    What   the   people 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET    63 

socially  need,  the  people  must  socially  own.  That 
is,  social  ownership  is  the  original  resource,  and 
private  ownership  is  the  product  of  one's  toil. 

What  compensation  did  poor  old  Mergenthaler 
get?  The  inventor  of  the  typesetting  machine 
which  bears  his  name,  died  in  New  York,  a  com- 
paratively poor  man.  His  invention  was  the 
greatest  revolution  in  the  printing  trade  since  the 
invention  of  the  power  press,  and  realized  the 
dreams  of  thousands  who  had  worked  upon  the 
problem  of  a  mechanical  substitute  for  hand  labor 
in  the  composing  room.  But,  like  so  many  of  his 
class,  ^lergenthaler  had  no  head  for  business,  and 
when  he  put  the  products  of  his  brains  into  a  com- 
bination, as  his  contribution  to  the  capital  stock, 
he  was  soon  frozen  out  and  the  men  of  money 
controlled  the  machine  which  he  had  spent  so 
many  weary  years  in  perfecting. 

And  all  this  was  done  in  a  perfectly  lawful 
manner.  Indeed,  the  character  of  the  men  who 
did  the  freezing  is  hi  itself  a  guarantee  that  every- 
thing connected  with  the  deal  was  most  legitimate 
and  business-like.  Such  men  as  Whitelaw  Reid, 
the  great  editor,  and  one-time  candidate  for  Vice 
President  of  the  United  States,  would  not  stoop 
to  swindling  methods.  Perish  the  thought.  But 
the  fact  remains  Lhat  Mergenthaler  invented  the 
machine,  was  frozen  out  and  died  poor,  while 
Whitelaw  Reid  and  his  fellows  invented  nothing, 
did  the  freezing  out,  and  have  already  amassed 
millions  from  the  brain  work  of  the  dead  man. 
How  much  better  it  would  have  been  for  the  in- 
ventor had  he  lived  under  a  system  in  which  the 


64  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

government  (the  whole  people)  would  compen- 
sate him  for  his  addition  to  the  mechanical  won- 
ders of  the  age,  and  reserve  their  use  and  all  their 
benefits  to  all  the  people.  As  it  is  now,  Mergen- 
thaler  has  gone  practically  unrewarded,  thousands 
of  printers  have  been  thrust  out  of  a  livelihood, 
with  no  compensation  for  the  years  spent  in  learn- 
ing their  trade,  and  a  band  of  idle  capitalists  are 
reaping  the  benefits.  But  the  idle  printers  have 
at  least  the  opportunity  to  study  in  their  many 
leisure  hours. 

A  TALE  TOLD  BY  A  VICTIM. 

In  the  popular  conception,  the  progress  of  what 
is  called  civilization,  is  frequently  measured  by 
the  amount  of  improved  machinery  and  labor-sav- 
ing devices  in  use  by  the  community  in  discussion. 
Those  who  use  tools  of  production  which  are  up- 
to-date,  are  generally  conceded  to  be  in  a  more 
advanced  stage  of  development,  and  as  a  rule 
this  conception  is  true  enough.  But  along  with 
this,  another  idea  takes  form,  that  the  owners  of 
these  improved  tools  are  consciously  assisting  the 
march  of  progress,  and  that  partially  for  this  rea- 
son these  improved  tools  are  brought  into  action. 
Nothing  is  more  false  than  this  idea.  The  first 
and  only  question  which  arises  in  the  mind  of  the 
capitalist,  when  an  invention  is  brought  under  his 
consideration  is,  ''Will  it  pay  me  ?" 

That  it  sometimes  happens  that  a  new  labor- 
saving  appliance  may,  through  peculiar  circum- 
stances, offer  no  such  immediate  inducement  to 
the  capitalist,  the  following  account  by  a  disgust- 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET    65 

ed  inventor  amply  demonstrates :  One  of  the  best 
mechanical  engineers  in  New  Orleans  told  an  in- 
teresting story,  apropos  of  the  tribulation  of  in- 
ventors.    "During  the  year  of  1897,"  he  said,  "I 
got  up  a  little  device  which  greatly  simplified  the 
working  of  a  certain  type  of  pump.    I  took  out  a 
patent  that  cost  me  in  the  neighborhood  of  three 
hundred   dollars,   including  attornev's   fees,   and 
finally  submitted  the  thing  to  a  big  manufactur- 
ing concern  in  the   North.     The  proprietors  at 
once  conceded  the  merit  of  the  invention,  and  of- 
fered me  $500  down,  and  a  royalty  of  $1.25  on 
each  one  used.     The  cash  payment  amounted  to 
nothing,  for  it  really  fell  short  of  covering  my 
time  and  expenses,  but  the  royalty  was  generous 
and  I  figured  it  out  that  it  would  yield  me  an  in- 
come of  $3,000  or  $4,000  every   year,   perhaps 
longer ;  it  depended  on  how  soon  something  better 
entered   the   field.     Accordingly    I   accepted   the 
proposition  and  transferred  all  my  right.  Now, 
how  much  do  you  think  I  have  actually  received  ? 
Not  a  penny.     No.     I  have  not  been  cheated ;  at 
least  all  the  accounts  have  been  perfectly  straight. 
The  trouble  is  they  never  put  the  device  on  the 
market.    They  simply  stuck  the  patents  and  draw- 
ing in  a  pigeon  hole  and  there  they  remain  to  this 
day.    Why  did  they  do  it,  did  you  ask  ?    To  save 
money.     The  public  is  very  well  suited  with  the 
pump  as  it  stands,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  they  could 
get  any  more  for  it  with  my  improvement  added. 
Such  a  step  would  merely  cut  down  the  profit,  so 
they  prefer  to  let  well  enough  alone.    It  was  nec- 
essary, of  course,  to    get    my    invention    safely 


66  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

shelved  or  it  might  have  been  taken  up  by  some 
enterprising  rival,  and  the  only  earthly  reason  for 
spending  $500  on  the  thing  was  to  put  it  out  of 
the  way.  It  was  rather  rough  on  me,  to  be  sure, 
but  the  experience  was  valuable,  and  I  will  not 
get  caught  that  way  again.  My  case  is  by  no 
means  exceptional,  either.  Dozens  of  inventors, 
all  over  the  country,  have  had  exactly  the  same 
experience."  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  buyers 
of  the  products  of  this  man's  brains  were  quite 
ready  to  recognize  the  merits  of  his  invention. 
The  question  is,  "Will  it  yield  me  profit?"  could 
not  be  answered  in  the  affirmative ;  but  it  might, 
nay,  certainly  would,  have  yielded  a  profit  to  some 
rival,  therefore  the  proper  method  was  to  buy  the 
right  of  its  use,  and  then  promptly  lav  it  on  the 
shelf. 

The  inventor,  in  telling  the  story,  does  not  think 
he  was  cheated,  which  shows  that  he  must  still 
have  an  abiding  faith  in  ''business"  morality.  The 
most  curious  part  of  the  narrative  is  that  this  in- 
ventor was  shelved,  but  it  is  rather  extraordinary 
that  he  was  not  able  to  see  this  before  surrender- 
ing his  product.  If  he  will  only  look  a  little  more 
closely  into  the  nature  of  this  transaction,  he  will 
understand  that  the  inventor,  as  well  as  all  other 
workers  who  possess  nothing  but  the  power  of 
labor,  brain  or  hands,  are  both  equally  defense- 
less against  the  capitalist  exploiters.  Capitalism 
will  only  employ  inventors  when  profit  accrues, 
just  as  they  will  only  employ  labor  power  under 
similar  conditions.  The  place  of  the  inventor  is 
in  the  ranks  of  the  Socialists,  where,  along  with 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET   67 

his  exploited  fellow-workmen,  he  can  fight  for 
the  overthrow  of  their  common  enemy,  the  capi- 
talist class.  Regarding  his  last  statement  that  his 
is  no  exceptional  case,  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  he  is  correct.  The  capitalist  will  religiously 
suppress  anything  that  will  not  yield  profit,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  like  the  dog  in  the  manger, 
he  will  prevent  his  rivals  from  profiting  by  any 
invention  that  he  himself  cannot  use.  That  is  the 
nature  of  the  beast,  and  if  this  inventor  wishes  to 
see  the  product  of  his  brain  become  a  social  value, 
he  must  strike  for  the  abolition  of  the  system  of 
individual  ownership  of  the  means  of  production, 
by  which  his  efforts  are  paralyzed. 

THE  CURSE  OF  PROFIT. 

I  feel  sure  that  the  time  will  come  when  people 
will  find  it  difficult  to  believe  that  a  rich  commun- 
ity, such  as  ours,  having  such  command  over  ex- 
ternal nature,  could  have  submitted  to  live  such  a 
mean,  shabby,  dirty  life  as  we  do.  And,  once  for 
all,  there  is  nothing  in  our  circumstances  save  the 
hunting  of  profit,  that  drives  us  into  it.  It  is 
profit  which  draws  men  into  enormous,  unman- 
ageable aggregations,  called  towns,  for  instance ; 
profit  which  crowds  them  up  when  they  are  there, 
into  quarters  without  gardens  or  open  spaces ; 
profit  which  will  not  take  the  most  ordinary  pre- 
cautions against  wrapping  a  whole  district  in  a 
cloud  of  sulphurous  smoke ;  which  turns  beauti- 
ful rivers  into  filthy  sewers ;  which  condemns  all 
but  the  rich  to  live  in  houses  idiotically  cramped 
and  confined  at  the  best,   and   at  the   worst  in 


68  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

houses  for  whose  wretchedness  there  is  no  name. 
I  say  it  is  almost  incredible  that  we  should  bear 
such  gross  stupidity  as  this ;  nor  should  we  if  we 
could  help  it.  We  shall  not  bear  it  when  the 
workers  get  it  out  of  their  heads,  that  they  are  but 
an  appendage  to  profit-grinding,  that  the  more 
profits  that  are  made  the  more  employment  at 
higher  wages  there  will  be  for  them,  and  that, 
therefore,  all  the  incredible  filth,  disorder  and  de- 
gradation of  modern  civilization  are  signs  of  their 
prosperity.  So  far  from  that,  they  are  signs  of 
their  slavery. 

When  they  are  no  longer  slaves,  they  will  claim, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  that  every  man  and  every 
family  should  be  generously  lodged;  that  every 
child  should  be  able  to  play  in  a  garden  close  to 
the  place  his  parents  live  in ;  that  the  houses 
should,  by  their  obvious  decency  and  order,  be  or- 
naments to  nature,  not  disfigurements  of  it.  -  All 
this,  of  course,  would  mean  the  people — that  is, 
all  society — duly  organized,  having  in  their  own 
hands  the  means  of  production,  to  be  owned  by  no 
individual,  but  used  by  all,  as  occasion  called  for 
its  use,  and  it  can  only  be  done  on  those  terms. 

On  any  other  terms  people  will  be  driven  to 
accumulate  private  wealth  for  themselves,  and 
thus,  as  we  have  seen,  to  waste  the  goods  of  the 
community  and  perpetuate  the  division  into 
classes,  which  means  continual  war  and  waste. 

HAVE  WE  TOO  MUCH.^ 

While  we,  the  great  American  people,  are 
"hammering  at  the  gates  of  Pekin,"  as  Mr.  Depew 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET   69 

says,  in  order  to  dispose  of  that  $2,000,000,000 
worth  of  products  which  we  cannot  consume, 
would  it  not  be  well  to  see  if  there  are  some  con- 
sumers among  us,  even  yet,  who  could  do  with  a 
trifle  more?  Here,  for  instance,  are  two  cases 
picked  at  random  from  a  Chicago  paper  :  No.  i. — 
"Forced  by  destitution  to  the  verge  of  insanity, 
and  shivering  with  cold,  Airs.  Emma  Muhs,  of 
178  North  Green  street,  left  her  seven  children, 
including  an  infant  but  a  few  weeks  old,  and  wan- 
dered muttering  and  moaning  through  the  streets 
until  taken  in  charge  by  the  West  Chicago  Avenue 
Station.  She  wore  a  wretched  old  wrapper,  her 
feet  were  bare  and  bleeding,  and  her  hair  hung 
uncombed  and  unfastened.  The  officers  conveyed 
her  to  the  detention  hospital,  and  an  hour  later 
took  four  of  the  children  to  the  same  institution. 
The  baby,  covered  with  sores,  and  scarcely  alive, 
was  taken  to  the  Foundlings'  home.  Robert  and 
Willie,  aged  4,  were  given  homes  by  relatives  at 
71  Bissell  street.  Homer,  13  years  old;  Emil, 
aged  II,  and  the  two  little  girls  are  still  at  the  de- 
tention hospital,  and  will  be  brought  before  Judge 
Tuthill  in  the  Juvenile  Court.  Mrs.  Aluhs'  hus- 
band, who  was  a  teamster,  was  killed  not  long  ago 
by  falling  from  his  wagon." 

No.  2. — "In  an  alley  back  of  Princeton  Avenue, 
near  37th  Street,  Airs.  Sarah  Elliott,  loi  years  of 
age,  was  found  by  the  police  after  having  been 
evicted  from  a  small  room,  which  she  occupied 
alone,  in  that  neighborhood.  The  woman  was 
crouching  in  the  shadow  of  a  barn,  and  was  shiv- 
ering with  cold  under  the  meager  protection  of 


70  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

a  ragged  blanket.  She  had  begged  the  landlord 
to  wait  a  few  days,  when  she  believed  that  money 
would  reach  her  from  grandsons  fighting  in  the 
Philippines.  Her  plea  was  refused.  Mrs.  Elliott 
was  born  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  came  to  this 
country  more  than  forty  years  ago.  Her  daugh- 
ter, who  is  now  an  old  woman,  is  sick  at  the 
county  hospital.  In  spite  of  her  great  age  the  un- 
fortunate woman  is  active  and  has  retained  all  of 
her  faculties.  She  was  too  proud  to  beg  and  had 
been  without  food  for  twenty-four  hours.  She 
was  taken  to  the  poorhouse  at  Dunning." 

Incidents  like  these,  which,  although  so  com- 
mon as- to  pass  almost  unnoticed,  and  which  yet 
might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  give  the  lie  di- 
rect to  the  smooth,  glibly  lying  hypocrite  who,  at 
the  Republican  convention,  gabbled  so  eloquently 
of  the  inability  of  the  American  people  to  con- 
sume the  surplus,  created  by  the  labor  of  the  com- 
munity. Could  the  unfortunate  women  and  chil- 
dren above  mentioned  have  consumed  anything 
more  in  the  way  of  clothing,  food  and  shelter 
than  fell  to  their  lot  ?  Is  the  wearing  of  a  'Svretch- 
ed  old  wrapper"  an  unfailing  sign  that  more  cloth- 
ing has  been  produced  than  can  possibly  be  con- 
sumed ?  Can  "bare,  bleeding  feet"  be  reconciled 
with  the  fact  that  a  pair  of  women's  high  grade 
shoes  can  be  turned  out  in  a  ''fraction  under  four- 
teen minutes,"  as  was  the  recent  boast  of  a  capital- 
ist shoe  factory  owner  of  Chicago?  Can  these 
two  facts  be  harmonized,  unless  upon  the  suppo- 
sition that  the  capitalist  production  is  an  insane, 
irrational  system?    Read  this  over  again,  and  let 


CAPITALISTIC  LAW  AND  THE  LABOR  MARKET    yi 

the  horror  of  the  thing  soak  into  you.  ''Forced  by 
destitution  to  the  verge  of  insanity  and  shivering 
with  cold/'  the  mother  of  seven  children  wanders 
moaning  and  muttering  through  the  streets  until 
taken  in  charge  by  police.  Baby,  a  few  weeks  old, 
covered  with  sores  and  scarcely  alive ;  father,  a 
teamster,  killed  by  a  fall  from  a  wagon  a  short 
time  before ;  rags,  hunger  and  wretchedness,  a 
*'home"  consisting  of  a  small  room,  broken  up 
(not  by  Socialism,  either)  ;  a  woman  loi  years 
old  crouched  in  the  shadow  of  a  barn  shivering 
with  cold  under  a  ragged  blanket,  and  the  sons 
fighting  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  for  the 
purpose  of  forcing  $2,000,000,000  worth  of  prod- 
ucts from  800,000,000  Asiatics.  Would  you  not 
say  that  an  economic  system  which  gives  results 
like  the  above  is,  in  reality,  a  combination  of  hell 
and  a  lunatic  asylum  ? 


''AM  I  MY  BROTHER'S  KEEPER?" 

Hello,  John.  "I  have  been  a  Republican  since 
i860,  but  my  party  stinks  in  the  nostrils  of  decent 
men.  If  the  people  are  willing  to  uphold  such  cor- 
ruption, as  many  of  the  leaders  practice,  and  to 
condone  their  dishonesty,  God  help  the  country." 
— John  Wanamaker. 

Very  commonly  we  hear  men  say.  Yes,  it  is  a 
pity  that  things  are  so  bad ;  but  it  is  no  fault  of 
ours,  and  nothing  we  can  do  will  mend  them. 
Now,  John,  this  is  a  cowardly  and  dishonest  ex- 
cuse. It  is  the  old  plea  of  Cain,  ''Am  I  my  broth- 
er's keeper?"  No  one  can  shirk  his  responsibil- 
ity. We  are  none  of  us  guiltless  when  wrong  is 
done.  We  are  all  responsible,  in  some  degree,  for 
every  crime  and  sin,  and  for  every  grief  and 
shame  for  which,  and  by  which,  our  fellow-crea- 
tures suffer.  Do  your  duty,  John.  Do  not  lie 
to  your  soul  any  more.  Long  have  you  known 
that  injustice  and  misery  are  rife  amongst  the 
people.  If  you  have  not  acted  upon  the  knowl- 
edge, it  is  not  because  you  knew  it  to  be  useless 
so  to  act,  but  because  you  were  lazy  and  preferred 
your  ease,  or  because  you  were  selfish  and  feared 
to  lose  your  own  advantage,  or  because  you  were 
heartless,  and  did  not  really  feel  any  pangs  at  the 
sight  of  the  sufferings  of  others.  ''These  com- 
mon sights  of  the  common  streets,"  John,  are  very 
terrible  to  me.  To  a  man  of  nervous  tempera- 
ment, at  once  thoughtful  and  imaginative,  these 
sights  must  be  terrible.    The  prostitute  under  the 


''am     I     MY    brother's    KEEPER  T  73 

lamps,  the  baby  beggar  in  the  gutter,  the  broken 
pauper  in  his  Hvery  of  shame,  the  weary  worker 
stifling  in  his  fihhy  shims,  the  wage  sl^ve  toihng 
at  his  task,  the  sweater's  victim,  "sewing  at  once, 
with  a  double  thread,  a  shroud  as  well  as  a  shirt" 
— these  things  are  dreadful,  ghastly,  shameful 
facts  which  long  since  seared  themselves  upon  my 
heart.  "All  this  sin,  all  this  wretchedness,  all  this 
pain,  in  spite  of  the  smiling  fields  and  the  laugh- 
ing waters,  under  the  awful  and  unsullied  sky. 
And  no  remedy !  These  things  I  saw,  and  I  knew 
that.  I  was  responsible  as  a  man.  Then  I  tried  to 
find  out  the  causes  of  the  wrong,  and  the  remedy 
thereof.  It  has  taken  me  some  years,  John.  But 
I  think  I  understand  it  now,  and  I  want  you  to 
understand  it  (Socialism),  and  to  help  in  your 
turn  to  teach  others.  Yes,  John,  you  fellows  smell 
pretty  bad.  There  are  awful  practices  amongst 
your  kind  of  people.  There  are  those  who  get 
rich  by  taking  the  coal  away  from  the  miner; 
those  who  in  the  factory  rob  the  children  of  youth 
and  education ;  those  who  conduct  sweatshops 
and  reduce  men,  women  and  children  alike,  to  the 
conditions  of  ignorance,  squalor  and  disease,  those 
who  sell  the  products  of  the  factory  and  sweat 
shops,  and  make  their  clerks  work  long  hours  for 
short  pay.  You.  John,  are  one  of  the  latter  sort, 
and  you  have  made  a  great  deal  of  money  dealing 
out  cheap  goods  through  the  medium  of  cheap 
help.  You  did  it  for  profit.  That  is  what  all  of 
the  others  did  their  "business"  for.  You  are  just 
as  good  as  they  are.  And  if  the  army  beef  men, 
and  the  rotten  clothing  men,  and  the  armor  plate 


74  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

men  get  a  little  more  profit  than  you  do,  John, 
do  not  get  fretful  and  begin  to  talk  about  God. 
That  is  just  what  Republican  John  Rockefeller, 
and  Carnegie,  and  Vanderbilt,  and  all  wise  capi- 
talist Johns  talk  about  when  they  want  to  wool 
the  people  a  little  more.  Dishonesty  is  a  hard 
word,  John.  Of  course  you  would  not  do  anything 
wrong  for  the  world,  but  these  other  fellows  are 
terrible  grasping,  eh,  John?  God  does  not  seem 
to  be  able  to  do  much  while  you  fellows  are  in 
charge  of  "business,"  John.  But  some  time  the 
people  will  take  a  hand  in  business.  Then,  good- 
by,  John  Wanamaker,  and  all  other  God-fearing 
( ?)  man  despoiling  cheapjohns.  ''Many  of  the 
leaders"  includes  all  of  the  robbers,  and  you  are 
fairly  in  it,  John. 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  all  conflicts  be- 
tween capital  and  labor,  the  capitalist  enters  into 
the  strife  knowing  that  he  can  fill  the  place  of 
every  striker  within  a  few  hours.  The  supply  is 
so  great,  and  the  anxiety  to  obtain  work  so  strong 
that  men  will  even  risk  their  lives  at  the  hands 
of  the  ofttimes  desperate  strikers  in  order 
to  gain  a  position.  The  capitalist  has  no  fears 
about  getting  laborers — the  only  fear  he  has  is, 
that  organized  labor  should,  by  force  and  vio- 
lence, prevent  his  "scab"  workmen,  as  they  are 
termed,  from  proceeding.  These  facts  must  con- 
clusively refute  the  statements  too  often  made 
that  "men  won't  work," and  ''there  is  work  enough 
if  men  are  only  willing  to  do  it."  Such  is  not  the 
truth.  I  can  find  many  instances  where  good, 
steady  workmen  have  offered  to  the  foremen  of 
certain  establishments  ten  and  twent}'-five  dollars 
and  even  the  whole  of  the  first  month's  wages, 
if  they  would  find  them  employment. 

But  how  about  the  "bums,"  who  will  not  work, 
even  when  it  is  offered  to  them  ?  And  the  reply  is 
worth  the  thoughtful  consideration  of  all.  Let  me 
ask,  what  is  a  "bum?"  As  a  rule,  you  will 
find  him  to  be  a  creature  degraded  by  circum- 
stances and  evil  conditions.  Let  me  illustrate :  A 
man  loses  his  job  by  sickness,  or  some  other  una- 
voidable cause.  He  seeks  work,  and  I  have  shown 
you  how  difficult  it  is  to  find  it.  He  fails  time 
and  time  again.    Is  it  any  wonder  that  he  grows 


y^  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

discouraged,  and  that,  picking  up  his  meals  at  the 
free  hinch  counter,  sleeping  in  the  wretched  lodg- 
ing houses,  associating  with  the  filthy  and  degrad- 
ed, he,  step  by  step,  drifts  further  away  from  the 
habits  of  integrity  \and  industry  that  used  to  be  a 
part  of  himself.  He  sinks  lower  and  lower,  until 
overcome  by  circumstances,  he  is  at  the  bottom  of 
the  social  layer — a  "bum,"  at  once  a  menace  and 
a  disgrace  to  the  city.  Instead  of  blaming  and  con- 
demning him,  poor  fellow,  we  should  look  at  the 
circumstances  that  made  him  what  he  is,  and  en- 
deavor to  remedy  them. 

I  myself  spent  six  months  in  1894  earnestly 
seeking  work,  around  Chicago  and  vicinity.  Yes, 
riding  Pullman  side  door  Gondolas,  and  then  had 
to  change  my  name  before  I  got  a  job,  because 
I  was  an  A.  R.  U.  striker.  No,  I  assure  you,  it  is 
only  a  narrow,  ignorant,  superficial  view  of  affairs 
that  will  lead  anyone  to  doubt  the  existence  of 
such  widespread  poverty,  and  the  difficulty  there 
is  to  gain  employment.  I  know  thousands  of  peo- 
ple will  meet  my  statements  with  their  cool- 
blooded  and  virtuous  remark  that,  *'No  one  can 
earnestly  seek  work  and  not  find  it,"  and  thus 
shuffle  their  own  responsibility  on  some  poor 
wretch  who  is  close  upon  the  verge  of  one  of  the 
three  precipices  of  desperation,  despair  or  crime. 
Let  me  emphatically  condemn  that  remark,  as  in 
many  cases  absolutely  untrue. 

Nothing  better  and  more  practical  that  I  know 
of  has  been  uttered  on  this  subject  than  by  Robt. 
G.  Ingersoll,  in  his  "Crimes  Against  Criminals," 
and  from  that  speech  I  extract  the  following: 


CAPITAL  AGAI^fST   LABOR  ']'] 

''Whoever  is  degraded  by  society  becomes  its  en- 
emy. The  seeds  of  mahce  are  sown  in  his  heart, 
and  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  will  hate  the  hands 
that  sowed  the  seed.  *  *  *  A  punishment 
which  degrades  the  punished  will  degrade  the 
man  who  inflicts  the  punishment,  and  will  de- 
grade the  government  that  procures  the  inflic- 
tion. The  whipping-post  pollutes,  not  only  the 
whipped,  but  the  whipper,  and  not  only  the  whip- 
per  but  the  community  at  large.  Wherever  its 
shadow  fall  it  degrades.  *  *  *  \Miat  is  the 
condition  of  this  man  ?  Can  he  get  employment  ? 
Not  if  he  honestly  states  who  he  is  and  where  he 
has  been.  The  first  thing  he  does  is  to  deny  his 
personality,  to  assume  a  name.  He  endeavors  by 
telling  falsehoods  to  lay  the  foundation  for  fu- 
ture good  conduct.  The  average  man  does  not 
wish  to  employ  an  ex-convict,  because  the  aver- 
age man  has  no  confidence  in  the  reforming  power 
of  the  penitentiary.  He  believes  that  the  convict 
who  comes  out  is  worse  than  the  convict  who 
goes  in.  He  knows  that  in  the  penitentiary  the 
heart  of  this  man  has  been  hardened — that  he  has 
been  subjected  to  the  torture  of  perpetual  humiha- 
tion — that  he  has  been  treated  like  a  ferocious 
beast ;  and  so  he  believes  that  this  ex-convict  has 
in  his  heart  hatred  for  society,  that  he  feels  that 
he  has  been  degraded  and  robbed.  Under  these 
circumstances  what  is  open  to  the  ex-convict  ?  If 
he  changes  his  name  there  will  be  some  detective, 
some  officer  of  the  law,  some  meddlesome  wretch, 
who  will  betray  his  secret.  He  is  then  discharg- 
ed.    He  seeks  employment  again,  and  he  must 


78  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

seek  it  again  by  telling  what  is  not  true.  He  is 
again  detected,  and  again  discharged.  And  final- 
ly he  becomes  convinced  that  he  cannot  live  as  an 
honest  man.  He  naturally  drifts  back  into  the 
society  of  those  who  have  had  a  little  experience ; 
and  the  result  is  that  in  a  little  while  he  again 
stands  in  the  dock,  charged  with  the  commission 
of  another  crime.  Again  he  is  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary, and  this  is  the  end.  He  feels  that  his 
day  is  done,  that  the  future  has  only  degradation 
for  him." 

The  convict  should  feel  the  protecting  power  of 
the  State.  He  should  be  given  a  "chance"  when 
discharged.  Some  of  his  prison  earnings  should 
be  given  him  to  begin  life  anew.  This  would  give 
him  food  and  raiment,  and  enable  him  to  get  to 
some  other  State  or  country  where  he  could  re- 
deem himself.  If  this  were  done,  thousands  of 
convicts  would  feel  under  immense  obligations  to 
the  government.  They  would  think  of  the  peni- 
tentiary as  the  place  in  which  they  were  saved — 
in  which  they  were  redeemed — and  they  would 
feel  that  the  verdict  of  ''guilty"  rescued  them,  from 
the  abyss  of  crime.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
law  would  appear  beneficent,  and  the  heart  of  the 
poor  convict,  instead  of  being  filled  with  malice, 
would  overflow  with  gratitude.  He  would  see  the 
propriety  of  the  course  pursued  by  the  govern- 
ment. He  would  recognize  and  feel  and  experi- 
ence the  benefits  of  this  course,  and  the  result 
would  be  good,  not  only  to  him  but  to  the  nation 
as  well. 


CAPITAL  AGAINST   LABOR  79 

CO-OPERATION. 

Invention  has  filled  the  world  with  competitors, 
not  only  of  laborers,  but  of  mechanics  of  the  high- 
est skill.  To-day  the  ordinary  laborer  is,  for  the 
most  part,  a  peg  in  the  wheel.  He  works  with  the 
tireless  machine — he  feeds  its  insatiable  maw. 
When  the  monster  stops  the  man  is  out  of  em- 
ployment— out  of  bread.  He  has  not  saved  any- 
thing. The  machine  invention  was  not  for  his 
benefit.  Some  time  ago  I  heard  a  man  say  that  it 
was  impossible  for  good  mechanics  to  get  emplov- 
ment,  and  that,  in  his  judgment,  the  government 
ought  to  furnish  work  for  the  people.  A  few  min- 
utes later  I  heard  another  say  that  he  was  selling  a 
patent  for  cutting  out  clothes,  that  one  of  the 
machines  could  do  the  work  of  twenty  tailors,  and 
that  only  a  short  time  ago  he  had  sold  two  to  a 
great  house  in  New  York,  and  that  over  forty 
cutters  had  been  discharged. 

On  every  side  men  are  being  discharged  and 
machines  are  being  invented  to  take  their  places. 
When  a  great  factory  shuts  down,  the  workers 
who  inhabited  it  and  gave  it  life,  as  thoughts  to 
the  brain,  go  away,  it  stands  there  like  an  empty 
skull.  A  few  workmen,  by  the  force  of  habit, 
gather  about  the  closed  doors  and  broken  win- 
dows and  talk  about  distress,  the  price  of  food  and 
the  coming  winter.  They  are  convinced  that  they 
have  not  their  share  of  what  they  created.  They 
feel  certain  that  the  machines  on  the  inside  were 
not  their  friends.  They  look  at  the  mansion  of 
the  employer,  but  have  nothing  themselves.    The 


8o  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

employer  seems  to  have  enough.  Even  when  em- 
ployers fail,  when  they  become  bankrupt,  they 
are  far  better  off  than  their  laborers  ever  were. 
Their  worst  is  the  toiler's  best. 

THE  CAPITALIST  AND  HIS  SPECIFIC. 

He  tells  the  working  men  they  must  be  eco- 
nomical, and  yet,  under  the  present  system  econ- 
omy would  lessen  wages.  Under  the  great  law 
of  supply  and  demand,  every  saving,  frugal,  self- 
denying  workman  is  unconsciously  doing  what  lit- 
tle he  can  to  reduce  the  compensation  of  himself 
and  his  fellows.  The  slaves  who  did  not  wish  to 
run  away  helped  to  fasten  the  chains  of  those  who 
did.  Lo,  the  saving  mechanic  is  a  certificate  that 
wages  are  high  enough.  Does  not  the  great  law 
demand  that  every  worker  should  live  on  the  least 
possible  amount  of  bread?  Is  it  not  his  fate  to 
work  one  day  that  he  may  get  food  enough  to  be 
able  to  work  another  ?  Is  that  to  be  his  only  hope 
— that,  and  death? 

Capital  has  also  claimed  and  still  claims  the 
right  to  combine.  Manufacturers  meet  and  de- 
termine prices,  even  in  spite  of  supply  and  de- 
m.and.  Have  not  the  laborers  the  same  right  to 
consult  and  combine  ?  The  rich  meet  in  the  bank, 
club  house  or  parlor.  Workingmen,  when  they 
combine,  gather  in  the  street.  All  the  organized 
forces  of  society  are  against  them.  Capital  has 
the  army  and  navy,  the  legislative,  the  judicial 
and  executive  departments.  When  the  rich  com- 
bine it  is  for  the  purpose  of  "exchanging  ideas." 
If  the  poor  combine  it  is  "conspiracy."     If  they 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR  8l 

act  in  concert,  if  they  really  do  something,  it  is  a 
mob ;  if  they  defend  themselves  it  is  treason  ? 

How  is  it  that  the  rich  control  the  departments 
of  the  government?  In  this  country  the  po- 
litical power  is  equally  divided  among  men. 
There  are  certainly  more  poor  than  rich.  Why 
should  the  rich  control  ?  Why  should  not  the 
poor  combine  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  the 
executive,  the  legislative  and  judicial  depart- 
ments? \\'ill  they  ever  find  out  how  powerful 
they  are?  A  cry  comes  from  the  oppressed,  the 
hungry,  the  downtrodden,  from  the  unfortunate, 
from  the  despised,  from  men  in  despair,  and  from 
women  who  weep.  There  are  times  when  mendi- 
cants become  revolutionists — when  a  rag  becomes 
a  banner  under  which  the  noblest  and  the  bravest 
battle  for  the  right. 

How  arc  we  to  settle  the  unequal  difference  be- 
tween man  and  machine  ?  Will  the  machine  final- 
ly go  into  partnership  with  the  laborer  ?  Can  these 
forces  of  nature  be  controlled  for  the  benefit  of  the 
children  ?  Will  extravagance  keep  pace  with  in- 
genuity? W^ill  the  workmen  become  intelligent 
and  strong  enough  to  become  the  owners  of  the 
machines  ?  Will  these  giants,  these  titans,  shorten 
or  lengthen  the  hours  of  labor?  Will  they  give 
leisure  to  the  industrious,  or  will  they  make  the 
rich  richer  or  the  poor  poorer  ?  Is  man  involved 
in  the  ''general  scheme"  of  things?  Is  there  no 
pity,  no  mercy?  Can  a  man  become  intelligent 
enough  to  be  generous,  to  be  just,  or  does  the 
same  law  or  facts  control  him  that  controls  the 
animal  or  the  vegetable  world?      The  great  oak 


S2  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

steals  the  sunlight  from  the  smaller  trees.  The 
strong  animal  devours  the  weak — everything  at 
the  mercy  of  the  beak,  and  the  claw,  and  hoof, 
and  tooth — of  hand,  and  club,  and  brain  and  greed 
— inequality,  injustice  everywhere.  The  poor 
horse  standing  in  the  street  with  his  dray,  over- 
worked, overwhipped  and  underfed,  when  he  sees 
horses  groomed  to  mirror,  glistening  with  gold 
and  silver,  scorning  with  proud  feet  the  very 
earth,  probably  indulges  in  the  usual  social  reflec- 
tions ;  and  this  same  horse,  worn  out  and  old,  de- 
serted by  his  master,  turned  into  the  dusty  road, 
leans  his  head  on  the  topmost  rail,  looks  at  don- 
keys in  the  field  of  clover,  and  feels  like  a  nihilist. 
In  the  days  of  cannibalism  the  strong  devoured 
the  weak — actually  ate  their  flesh.  In  spite  of  all 
laws  that  man  has  made,  in  spite  of  all  advances 
in  science,  the  strong,  the  heartless,  still  live  on 
the  weak,  the  unfortunate,  the  foolish.  True, 
they  do  not  drink  their  blood  or  eat  their  flesh, 
but  they  live  on  their  self-denial,  their  weariness 
and  want.  The  poor  man  who  deforms  himself 
by  toil,  who  labors  for  his  wife  and  children 
through  all  his  anxious,  barren,  wasted  life — who 
goes  to  the  grave  without  ever  having  a  luxury — 
has  been  the  food  for  others.  He  has  been  de- 
voured by  his  fellowmen.  The  poor  woman,  liv- 
ing in  the  bare  and  lonely  room,  cheerless  and  fire- 
less,  night  and  day,  to  keep  starvation  from  her 
child,  is  slowly  being  eaten  by  her  fellowmen. 
When  I  take  into  consideration  the  agony  of  civ- 
ilized life,  the  failures,  the  anxieties,  the  tears,  the 
hunger,  the  crime,  the  humiliation  and  the  shame, 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR  83 

I  am  almost  forced  to  say  that  cannibalism,  after 
all.  is  the  most  merciful  form  in  which  man  can 
exist. 

It  is  mipossible  for  a  man  with  a  good  heart  to 
be  satisfied  with  this  world  as  it  is  now.  No  man 
can  truly  enjoy  what  he  really  earns — what  he 
knows  to  be  his  own — knowing  that  millions  of 
his  fellowmen  are  in  misery  and  want.  When  we 
think  of  the  famished  we  feel  it  almost  heartless 
to  eat.  To  meet  the  ragged  and  shivering  ones 
makes  one  almost  feel  ashamed  to  be  well  dressed 
and  warm — one  feels  as  if  his  heart  were  as  cold 
as  their  bodies.  In  a  world  filled  with  millions, 
and  millions  of  acres  of  land  waiting  to  be  tilled, 
when  one  man  can  raise  food  for  hundreds,  mil- 
lions are  yet  on  the  edge  of  famine.  Who  can 
comprehend  the  stupidity  at  the  bottom  of  this 
fact  ?  Is  there  to  be  no  change  ?  Are  the  laws  of 
"supply  and  demand,"  invention  and  science,  mo- 
nopoly and  competition,  capital  and  legislation  al- 
ways to  be  enemies  of  those  who  toil  ?  \\'ill  the 
workers  always  be  ignorant  and  stupid  enough  to 
give  their  earnings  to  the  useless  ?  Will  they  sup- 
port millions  of  soldiers  to  kill  sons  of  other  work- 
men ?  Will  they  always  build  temples  and  live  in 
huts  and  dens  themselves  ?  Will  they  forever  al- 
low parasites  and  vampires  to  live  on  their  blood  ? 
Will  they  remain  the  slaves  of  the  beggars  they 
support?  Will  honest  men  stop  taking  off  their 
hats  to  successful  frauds?  Will  industry,  in  the 
presence  of  crowned  idleness,  forever  fall  upon 
its  knees ;  and  will  the  lips  unstained  by  lies  for- 
ever kiss  the  robbers'  and  imposters'  hands  ?    Will 


84  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

they  understand  that  beggars  cannot  be  generous, 
and  that  every  healthy  man  must  earn  the  right  to 
Hve  ?  Will  they  finally  say  that  the  man  who  has 
had  privileges  with  all  others  has  no  right  to 
complain,  or  will  they  follow  the  example  set  by 
their  oppressors?  Will  they  learn  that  force,  to 
succeed,  must  have  thought  behind  it,  and  that 
everything  done,  in  order  that  they  may  succeed, 
must  rest  on  justice?" 

THIS  WORLD  OF  OURS. 

Occasionally  the  world's  plutocracy  pauses  in 
its  revelry  of  luxury  and  power,  and  with  an  air  of 
assumed  innocence  asks  :  What  is  wrong  ?  In  the 
name  of  justice,  what  is  right?  Liberty  is  being 
crucified.  Patriotism  is  dying.  Justice  is  de- 
throned. The  rich  are  reckless  in  their  extrava- 
gance ;  the  poor  are  starving. 

Government,  which  is  supposed  to  find  justifica- 
tion in  principles  of  reason  and  humanity,  and  de- 
rives its  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed, 
has  become  a  tool  of  oppression.  Armed  invaders 
are  sent  from  one  country  to  another  to  conquer 
its  subjects.  The  militia  is  being  strengthened. 
Plutocracy  is  arming  itself  for  a  contest  and  labor 
is  preparing  to  accept  the  battle.  Legislative  in- 
fluence is  bought  and  sold,  as  though  it  was  an 
ordinary  commodity.  Courts  are  corrupted  and 
justice  bartered.  The  ballot,  the  only  instru- 
ment the  people  have  to  protect  themselves  with, 
except  the  bullet,  is  being  tampered  with,  and  to  a 
great  extent,  controlled  by  corrupt  "rings."  A 
selfish,  unscrupulous  "ward  heeler,"  or  squirrel- 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR  85 

tailed  politician,  is  considered  of  more  account 
than  a  dozen  honest  voters.  Corruption,  monop- 
oly and  oppression  are  everywhere.  The  people 
are  taxed  on  everything  they  handle,  whether  they 
eat  it,  wear  it  or  use  it  in  their  different  vocations. 

The  genius  of  man  discovers  new  inventions, 
but  the  avarice  of  man  at  once  monopolizes  them, 
and  they  become  agents  of  oppression,  instead  of 
beneficent  discoveries.  Wealth  is  concentrating 
in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  children  are  begging 
for  bread.  The  wise  are  blind ;  the  church  is 
asleep ;  the  press  is  subsidized  or  hypnotized,  and 
the  statesmen  are  scrambling  for  a  "job."  The 
idle  army  of  workmen  is  increasing.  Directly  they 
will  get  hungry — ah,  they  are  hungry  now.  Some 
are  begging;  some  are  stealing;  some  are  starv- 
ing; but  all  are  verging  on  that  madness  which  is 
the  sure  precursor  of  revolution.  The  eyes  of  the 
triumphant  plutocracy  see  not  the  danger,  and 
their  hearts  heed  not  the  cry  of  the  oppressed.  The 
world  is  bright  for  them.  Why  should  they  care  ? 
"Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?"  ''Eat,  drink  and  be 
merry,  for  to-morrow  you  may  die."  And  the 
world  swings  around.  The  gulf  is  widening. 
"The  conflict  is  nearing."  Plutocracy  is  prepar- 
ing Belshazzer's  feast.  Caesar  is  crossing  the 
Rubicon.  History  is  repeating  itself,  and  God  will 
wipe  out  the  wrongs  of  humanity,  although  it 
sends  back  the  hands  of  progress  on  the  dial  of 
civilization.  God  pity  the  homeless  poor  in  this 
world  of  ours :  the  weary  earth  pilgrim  with  no 
place  to  call  home. 

God  made  the  beautiful  shining  lakes,  the  wind- 


86  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

ing  rivers,  the  babbling  brooks,  crystal  springs, 
and  waving  forests.  He  gave  them  to  man.  He 
gave  them  countless  millions  of  acres  of  fertile 
land.  Among  his  princely  gifts  were  rich  deposits 
of  gold  and  silver,  lead  and  iron,  zinc  and  copper, 
and  every  metal  that  could  lead  to  the  happiness 
of  manhood.  He  gave  us  strong  arms,  cunning 
hands  and  willing  hearts.  Man  accepted  the  gift, 
and  before  his  sturdy  blows  forests  were  felled; 
in  their  places  sprung  up  cities  with  their  golden 
spires  and  smoking  chimneys,  that  pierced  the 
blue  above.  Fertile  fields  yield  their  bountiful 
store  of  golden  grain.  The  iron  horse,  shaking 
the  ground  beneath,  and  outstripping  the  wind 
above,  carries  its  load  of  human  freight,  and  de- 
livers its  precious  stores  in  distant  cities,  bringing 
back  the  products  of  the  artisan  and  the  factory. 
Over  the  earth  is  stretched  a  network  of  wires  on 
which  messages  are  borne  on  lightning's  wing. 
All  these  are  the  gifts  of  God  and  the  products 
of  man's  labor.  God  sends  refreshing  showers 
and  the  beautiful  sunshine  and  coaxes  Mother 
Earth  to  yield  her  bountiful  stores.  Soft  winds 
kiss  the  beautiful  flowers,  whose  myriads  of  colors 
please  the  eye  and  gladden  the  heart. 

But  amidst  all  this  plenty  and  beauty  there  is 
much  sadness.  ''Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes 
the  countless  thousands  mourn."  The  rich  have 
seized  the  lands.  The  poor  have  no  homes.  The 
flowers  do  not  bloom  for  them.  The  beautiful 
palaces  which  they  build  with  their  own  hands  af- 
ford them  no  shelter.  The  song  of  the  babbling 
brook  is  hollow  mockery.    Of  the  beautiful  har- 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR  87 

vests  they  get  a  more  sustenance,  and  many  beg 
that.  The  laws  protect  the  rich  and  allow  them 
to  rob  the  poor.  Each  day  the  rich  are  growing 
richer,  and  the  poor  poorer.  Usury  and  extortion 
are  sapping  the  industries  of  the  nation.  What 
fond  memories  are  connected  with  the  word  home. 
"There's  no  place  like  home."  There  a  man's  pa- 
triotism is  anchored.  There  in  the  atmosphere  of 
its  wholesome  influence,  his  whole  being  is  enno- 
bled. There,  in  the  sweet  companionship  of  wife 
and  children,  his  character  is  cast  into  a  finer 
mould.  There  he  builds  him  an  altar  and  wor- 
ships God.  There  is  exerted  the  kind  influence 
of  mother  that  will  be  carried  over  the  golden 
wires  of  memory,  in  years  to  come,  to  guide  the 
earning  ones  when  they  reach  manhood.  Looking 
back  through  the  varying  scenes  of  fleeting  years, 
we  behoM  the  sweet  smile  of  mother,  the  kind 
caress  of  father,  and  loving  confidence  of  sister  or 
brother.  Oh,  home.  In  thy  sacred  precincts  were 
formed  ties  of  love  that  will  never  be  broken  in 
life.  How  cruel  to  be  robbed  of  home.  How  great 
the  nation's  sin  that  permits  it. 

"Socialism  will  destroy  the  family,"  shriek  the 
defenders  of  Capitalism,  and  a  lot  of  fool  laborers 
and  otherwise  intelligent  people  are  frightened 
from  a  further  examination  of  the  Socialist  posi- 
tion. It  is  needless  to  say  that  no  Socialist  ever 
proposed  or  dreamed  of  any  such  thing,  and  one 
might  be  at  a  loss  to  know  how  the  idea  origin- 
ated if  it  were  not  for  the  fact,  which  has  long 
been  recognized,  that  Capitalism  always  imputes 
its  own  sins  to  its  opponents. 


88  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

It  is  Capitalism,  not  Socialism,  that  is  destroy- 
ing all  family  life.  It  sends  the  wife  and  mother 
into  the  New  England  factories,  while  the  father 
either  cares  for  the  children  at  home  or  is  driven 
to  the  "stag  towns"  of  the  West,  leaving  the 
women  to  make  up  the  *'she  villages"  of  the 
East.  Even  if  they  are  still  allowed  to  nominally 
make  up  a  single  "home,"  the  father  is  not  al- 
lowed to  get  acquainted  with  his  family;  his 
children  scarcely  know  him.  Worse  yet,  the 
factory  invades  the  "home"  and  makes  it  that 
hell  of  feverish  toil  called  a  sweat-shop.  At 
every  point  Capitalism  pours  its  destructive 
venom  out  upon  this  supposedly  cherished  insti- 
tution. It  reduces  the  incomes  of  thousands  to 
the  point  where  marriage  is  an  impossibility  on 
the  part  of  men  and  prostitution  a  necessity  for 
the  woman.  It  yearly  drives  thousands  of  men 
to  desert  their  families,  upon  which,  through 
lack  of  employment,  they  have  become  a  burden, 
not  a  means  of  maintenance.  It  compels  a  large 
per  cent  of  the  population  to  live  under  condi- 
tions where  children  are  born  only  to  be  killed 
by  their  surroundings,  and  sets  a  premium  on 
infanticide  through  child  insurance.  Nor  is  this 
state  of  afifairs  confined  to  the  manual  laborers. 
The  clerk  in  the  department  store  may  have  the 
amusement  of  flattering  himself  that  socially  he 
belongs  to  the  Capitalist  class,  but  he  is  plainly 
told  that  he  must  not  act  upon  that  supposition 
to  the  extent  of  marrying  and  making  himself  a 
home.  In  all  professional  lines  the  same  ten- 
dency is  seen.     Wages  are  calculated  upon  the 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR  89 

basis  of  what  it  takes  to  support  a  single  indi- 
vidual at  the  standard  which  the  employer  thinks 
is  necessary  to  be  profitable  to  his  business,  and 
no  arrangements  are  made  for  the  "home."  With 
the  school-teacher  this  fact  is  even  more  bru- 
tally stated.  The  woman  teacher  is  frankly  told 
that,  while  she  may  have  a  husband,  she  must 
not  enjoy  the  luxury  of  children.  Furthermore, 
the  salaries  of  the  male  teachers  are  kept  at  a 
point  where  marriage  is  impossible,  and  if  he 
dares  to  marry  a  woman  teacher,  her  salary  stops 
and  the  "home"  is  again  attacked.  Some  time 
ago  one  teacher  was  forced  to  make  the  awful 
choice  between  her  child  and  her  means  of  living 
and  caring  for  that  child.  In  the  end  she  was 
not  even  allowed  the  choice,  and  when  she  had, 
as  it  were,  sacrificed  the  society  and  care  of  her 
child  for  the  power  to  feed  it,  the  powers  decided 
that  she  still  might  have  some  feelings  of  moth- 
erly interest  in  it,  and  so  discharged  her  that  both 
might  suffer  together. 

Capitalism,  after  robbing  its  victims,  charges 
them  with  murder.  It  is  by  no  means  a  new  de- 
vice of  capitalist  society  to  charge  the  unfortun- 
ate victims  of  the  wage  system  with  crimes  which 
in  themselves  can  easily  be  traced  to  the  necessi- 
ties of  profit-making,  as  the  following  extract 
from  a  New  York  paper  will  illustrate :  "Of  the 
children  who  passed  through  the  Gerry  society's 
hands  last  winter  1.708  were  insured,"  said  Su- 
perintendent Jenkins  that  day.  "Many  of  these 
children,  I  am  confident,  were  insured  to  be  kill- 
ed by  neglect,  or  otherwise,  so  that  those  who 


90  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

insured  them  might  pocket  the  money.  In  child 
Hfe  insurance,"  continued  Mr.  Jenkins,  "a  parent 
or  guardian  or  other  person — for  it  does  not  mat- 
ter to  the  insurance  company  who  takes  the 
poUcy — bets  the  insurance  company  that  a  cer- 
tain child  will  die  within  a  certain  time,  for  all 
of  these  policies  are  made  for  a  certain  time,  at 
the  end  of  which  they  may  be  renewed.  The 
company  bets  that  the  child  will  not  die  within 
the  specified  time.  The  insured  puts  up  a  stated 
sum  when  he  registers  his  bet.  If  the  child  fails 
to  die  the  money  is  lost  by  the  payer  and  re- 
tained by  the  company.  If  the  child  dies  the 
company  loses  the  bet  and  pays  the  money." 
What  sort  of  people  are  they  who  hold  stock  in 
such  companies  ?  They  are  the  same  crowd  who 
support  Gerry  societies,  the  same  hypocritical 
gang  who  constantly  inveigh  against  gambling, 
the  same  type  of  people  who  get  up  the  ''cru- 
sades" against  pool  rooms,  and  form  themselves 
into  societies  for  the  suppression  of  crap  shoot- 
ing. The  same  canting,  Pharisaical  crowd  that 
Jesus  denounced  as  ''straining  at  a  gnat  and 
swallowing  a  camel."  These  wolves  in  sheeps' 
clothing,  whom  the  sight  of  a  stack  of  poker 
chips  fills  with  holy  horror,  have  no  scruple  what- 
ever in  taking  a  hand  in  a  game  where  the  stakes 
are  laid  against  the  lives  of  the  unfortunate  off- 
spring of  the  plundered  victims  of  capitalist  rob- 
bery. Agents,  the  most  plausible  and  persua- 
sive that  can  be  secured,  are  constantly  sent 
round  to  urge  upon  the  parents  the  necessity  of 
making  provision   for   fatalities   to   which   their 


CAPITAL  AGAIXST  LABOR  9 1 

children  are  exposed.  The  more  successful  these 
agents  are  the  more  profit  for  the  stockholders. 
\Vhen  fatalities  occur  it  is  found  convenient  to 
charge  the  working  class  with  deliberate  infan- 
ticide for  the  sake  of  gain.  This  talk  of  insuring 
the  lives  of  children  for  the  sole  purpose  of  ob- 
taining the  premium  has  been  rife  for  many 
years,  and  it  most  frequently  crops  out  when 
the  dividends  due  the  stockholders  show  signs  of 
diminution.  If  it  could  be  substantiated,  there 
would  be  no  trouble  in  revoking  the  charters  of 
such  insurance  companies. 

The  great  mortality  among  the  children  of  the 
working  class,  whether  insured  or  not,  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  evidences  of  the  murderous 
character  of  the  capitalist  system.  If  an  analysis 
were  made  it  would  most  probably  be  found  that 
where  the  mortality  is  excessive  the  workers  are 
too  poor  to  make  even  an  attempt  to  insure.  The 
truth  is  that  capitalism  murders  the  children  of 
the  workers  and  its  upholders  then  charge  the 
luckless  parents  with  the  crime.  The  "company" 
is  a  convenient  scape-goat,  upon  which  the  sanc- 
timonious capitalist  stockholder  can  lay  his  por- 
tion of  the  guilt  involved  in  the  charges.  The 
company  bets — the  godly  stockholder  does  not 
approve  of  betting — but  the  tastes  of  profits  are 
too  sweet  for  him  to  forego.  Therefore  all  will 
be  well  if  only  the  cloak  of  ''legality"  can  be 
thrown  over  the  whole  proceeding,  and  a  more 
suitable  name  found  for  this  commercial  gamble. 
in  which  the  lives  of  children  are  used  as  coun- 
ters  in   the   game.     The   ingenuity   with   which 


92  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

capitalism  covers  up  the  traces  of  criminality  has 
also  created  a  wide  selection  of  "respectable" 
names  under  which  this  particular  form  of  profit- 
making  can  operate,  and  those  who  thrive  by  it 
still  retain  the  odor  of  sanctity.  And  when  the 
competition  amongst  the  rival  gamblers  becomes 
too  severe,  and  dividends  consequently  de- 
crease, it  is  found  quite  easy  to  accuse  the  work- 
ing class  of  making  away  with  their  own  children 
and  the  "legitimate''  profit  of  the  "company"  at 
the  same  time,  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  lat- 
ter is,  in  the  eyes  of  its  accusers,  the  greater  crime 
of  the  two. 

Is  this  the  true  position  then?  Is  capital  the 
friend  of  labor?  Are  the  sweaters,  the  usurers, 
the  land  grabbers,  the  stock-exchange  gamblers, 
the  patentee  monopolists,  the  property-lords,  the 
syndicated  exploiters,  the  subsidized  upholders 
of  capitalism — are  these,  I  ask,  the  friends  of  the 
workers?  If  they  are,  why  do  we  mutter  against 
them  behind  their  backs,  though  we  cringe  when 
they  look  at  us ;  and  why  are  we  always  com- 
plaining of  the  station  in  life  in  which  it  has 
pleased  Providence  and  our  good  friends  to  place 
us  for  our  own  good?  If  they  are  not;  if,  so  far 
from  being  the  friends,  they  are  the  inveterate 
enemies  of  the  workers ;  if  we  regard  them  as 
oppressors ;  if,  as  we  exclaim  at  excited  moments, 
they  have  stolen  our  birth-rights,  and  still  con- 
spire to  keep  us  from  our  heritage ;  if  we  secretly 
hate  and  detest  them  and  their  infamous  system 
of  exploitation — why  in  the  name  of  all  the  gods 
at  once,  do  we  continue  to  palter  with  them? 


CAPITAL  AGAINST  LABOR  93 

Why  do  we  not  come  out  and  declare  that  we 
hate  the  capitahsts  and  their  aUies  with  a  never- 
dving  hate ;  that  we  have  no  thoughts,  no  feel- 
in^^s.  no  interests,  no  aspirations  in  common  with 
them ;  that  there  is  eternal  war  between  us— 
war,  remorseless  and  unsparing? 


DEMOCRACY  EXPOSED. 

How  many  thousand  times  have  you  heard  of 
the  ''J^ff^^sonian  Democracy?"  What  was  Jef- 
ferson's idea  of  Democracy?  It  is  all  put  by  him 
in  just  fifty-nine  words  in  his  inaugural  address, 
and  here  are  those  fifty-nine  words :  "A  wise 
and  frugal  government,  that  shall  restrain  men 
from  injuring  one  another,  shall  leave  them 
otherwise  free  to  regulate  their  own  pursuits  of 
industry  and  improvement  and  shall  not  take  from 
the  mouth  of  labor  the  bread  it  has  earned.  This 
is  the  sum  of  good  government,  and  this  is  neces- 
sary to  close  the  circle  of  our  felicities." 

But  suppose  some  leader  could  go  far  ahead 
of  Jefferson,  as  Jefferson  went  ahead  of  his  pred- 
ecessors. Suppose  we  had  a  leader  who  would 
say  and  mean  what  follows :  "Friend,  I  do  not 
limit  myself  to  Jefferson's  views  or  to  Jefferson's 
plans.  He  believed  and  our  early  Democrats  be- 
lieved that  letting  people  alone  to  fight,  compete 
and  work  out  their  own  salvation  would  bring 
happiness  and  contentment  at  least  to  a  majority. 
That  belief  was  very  pretty.  But  unfortunately 
we  know  now  that  the  mere  policy  of  giving 
every  man  a  chance,  and  the  Devil  take  the  hind- 
most does  not  make  happiness  and  contentment 
for  a  majority,  or  even  for  a  reasonable  minority. 
We  know  that  the  extra  cunning  of  some  men, 
the  bribable  nature,  the  intense  selfishness  of  a 
great  majority,  means  inevitable  hardship  and 
want  for  more  than  half  the  people.     I  say  that 


DEMOCRACY  EXPOSED  95 

in  this  country  there  is  or  could  be  produced 
enough  for  All.  I  mean  with  your  help  and 
authority  to  see  that  it  is  produced,  and  once 
produced,  to  see  it  fairly  divided.  I  am  not  satis- 
fied with  a  government  that  takes  from  the 
mouth  of  labor  the  bread  which  it  has  earned. 
I  want  a  government  that  shall  say.  Bread  alone 
is  not  good  enough  for  the  mouth  of  labor. 
When  labor  which  produces  gets  only  bread, 
while  parasite,  cunning  and  capital,  which  ex- 
ploit and  plan,  get  cake  and  pie  and  jam.  Democ- 
racy is  a  failure.  A  government  which  can  only 
boast  that  it  does  not  take  bread  from  the  mouth 
of  labor  has  but  little  to  boast  of.  I  think  as 
little  of  it  as  I  should  of  a  nurse  girl  if  I  heard 
her  boasting  that  she  never  stole  the  milk  from 
the  baby,  I  would  say  to  her,  'If  that  is  your 
only  recommendation,  get  out.'  I  would  substi- 
tute for  'the  wise  and  frugal  government'  de- 
scribed by  Jefferson,  a  'wise  and  generous  gov- 
ernment.' Would  I  have  government  discour- 
age brains  and  energy?  No,  but  does  a  father 
discourage  brains  and  energy  when  he  whips  his 
boy  for  kicking  his  little  sister?  He  makes  a 
man  of  him.  I  would  improve  the  energetic,  In- 
telligent strains  of  Americans  by  kicking  de- 
cency into  them. 

"I  go  by  what  I  see,  not  by  fine  generalities. 
I  see  a  few  thousands  dying  of  over-eating  and 
over-drinking,  or  shivering  with  nervousness, 
racked  by  watching  useless  piles  of  money.  I 
see  millions  leading  dull,  gray  lives  ;  wants  halt 
satisfied ;  ambitions  killed.    We  are  a  free  people 


96  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

with  nine  men  in  every  ten  haunted  by  fear  of 
losing  employment.  Pretty  freedom !  We  are 
a  people  of  unlimited  producing  resources  kept 
poor  and  pinched  by  laws  of  supply  and  demand. 
Who  made  those  laws?  The  people.  Friend,  I 
shall  sum  up  the  supply  and  demand  situation 
in  a  way  that  will  be  called  anarchy  by  all  save 
perhaps  about  seventy-nine  million  of  our  inhab- 
itants." 


WE  SHOULD  GOVERN,  NOT  OUR  ANCES- 
TORS. 

I  have  very  little  to  say  of  George  Washing- 
ton, Thomas  Jefferson  and  Abraham  Lincoln. 
They  were  great  figures  in  our  history ;  but  they 
are  dead  now.  And  while  old  party  speakers 
seem  to  hold  communication  with  them  and 
claim  to  know  just  what  they  would  do  now, 
what  their  policy  would  be,  how  they  would  deal 
with  the  Philippine  question,  the  Cuban  and  the 
Chinese,  I  am  somewhat  inclined  to  think  it  a 
pipe  dream,  spiritus  trimenti  rather  than  an  oc- 
cult demonstration.  I  care  as  little  about  what 
they  would  do  as  a  modern  newspaper  man  does 
for  the  truth.  The  trouble  with  us  is,  we  are 
like  the  Chinese — we  are  ancestor  worshipers. 
The  first  thing  we  do  when  a  new  question  arises 
is  to  hunt  up  our  patron  saint  and  find  out  what 
he  would  do,  interpret  his  ideas  to  suit  our  own, 
and  then  swell  up  and  say,  ''Jackson  or  Jeft'erson 
said  so,"  and  then  expect  the  people  to  smite 
their  breasts  and  say,  'Tvismet,  fate,  God  is  good ; 
it  must  be  so."  But  rather  let  us  read  up  and 
study,  and  then  say,  'T  say  so  and  I  defy  you  to 
contradict."  Don't  shove  the  responsibility  on  a 
dead  man.  I  know  more  what  should  be  done 
to-day,  and  so  do  you,  than  any  man  who  died  a 
hundred  years  ago.  We  are  all  looking  for  prec- 
edents instead  of  trusting  to  our  knowledge  ot 
the  subject  and  acting  accordingly. 

Do  not  scoff  at  new  ideas.     Remember  that 


98  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

everything  we  have  was  a  new  idea  once ;  that  it 
fought  its  way  up  through  just  such  antagonism 
as  Sociahsm  has  to-day.  Do  not  blame  a  man 
for  his  beliefs ;  he  cannot  help  them.  He  simply 
acts  along  the  line  of  least  resistance,  according 
to  his  knowledge.  Do  not  think  that  we  imagine 
we  are  exceptionally  intelligent ;  we  are  not.  We 
have  simply  been  compelled  to  recognize,  by 
such  circumstances  as  the  trusts  and  the  neces- 
sity of  large  capital  to  carry  on  enterprises,  that 
things  are  not  as  they  were  formerly.  The  en- 
tire industrial  system  has  undergone  a  revolu- 
tion. No  longer  does  one  man  make  an  article, 
but  often  it  takes  one  hundred  men.  Instead  of 
being  an  independent  producer  of  an  article,  he 
is  dependent  on  many  others.  He  no  longer 
markets  his  goods,  but  is  dependent  on  others 
to  do  it  for  him. 

Socialists  are  not  going  around  to  get  fun  out 
of  this.  It  is  a  serious  matter.  I  want  Socialism 
because  I  believe  that  I  can  get  a  great  deal 
more  happiness  out  of  that  system  of  society. 
And  because  George  Washington  did  not  know 
that  such  things  as  steam  railroads,  electric  cars, 
telephones,  telegraphy  and  other  modern  im- 
provements were  going  to  be  invented,  and 
therefore  failed  to  make  due  calculation  of  their 
effect  on  twentieth  century  society,  I  do  not  see 
the  necessity  of  my  submitting  to  the  economic 
changes  they  have  produced.  To  tell  the  truth,  I 
have  but  very  little  respect  for  the  crimes  of  my 
fathers.  For  instance,  I  read  of  franchises  being 
given  for  ninety-nine  years.    Think  of  that.     It 


WE  SHOULD  GOVERN,  NOT  OUR  ANCESTORS     99 

means  that  a  set  of  scoundrels  in  office  can  bind 
three  generations  to  servitude  without  any  hope 
of  redress.  What  would  you  think  if  some  man 
were  to  come  around  and  present  you  a  note 
contracted  by  your  grandfather  and  request  that 
you  pay  it  ?  I  do  not  believe  that  one  generation 
has  a  right  to  shove  their  debts  upon  another.  I 
do  not  believe  in  shoving  the  responsibility  ot 
your  ideas  upon  a  dead  man.  The  sooner  peo- 
ple break  up  their  little  idols  and  step  boldly  out 
into  the  sunlight  of  facts,  and  are  no  longer 
guided  by  superstition  and  traditions  and  rabbit 
feet,  leave  these  things  behind  and  look  at  actual 
conditions,  the  quicker  we  will  get  out  of  the 
economic   nightmare   and   long-headed   larceny. 

Workingmen,  speak  out.  Do  not  hold  the 
language  of  slaves.  Tell  the  capitalist  class  what 
you  mean.  Ask  nothing  of  them  as  a  favor. 
Claim  your  rights.  Demand  them.  Tell  the 
capitalist  class  that  you  will  no  longer  submit  to 
their  dictates.  I  never  could  bear  to  see  any  one 
who  wanted  to  sit  down  and  stand  up  at  the 
same  time.  That  is  why  it  makes  me  so  impa- 
tient to  see  a  workingman  looking  anxiously  for 
a  betterment  of  his  condition  and  still  shouting, 
"Hurrah,  boys !"  with  either  of  the  old  parties. 

Both  the  Democratic  and  Republican  parties 
are  catering  to,  and  always  have  catered  to  the 
poor  man's  patronage  with  many  great  and  no- 
ble promises,  only  to  be  broken  after  election. 
They  have  posed  as  the  poor  man's  great  friend, 
only  that  they  might  hold  him  while  capitalists 
robbed  him  of  his  labor,  his  home  and  his  fam- 


lOO  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

ily.  Through  poverty  they  have  made  our  par- 
ents paupers,  our  wives  drudges,  our  sisters  and 
daughters  prostitutes  and  sent  our  children  to 
their  graves  at  a  premature  age.  They  have 
made  of  us  thieves,  hars,  gamblers,  criminals, 
tramps  and  drunkards  wallowing  in  the  slime  and 
filth  of  the  gutters  and  not  w^orthy  the  name 
Man.  They  have  done  all  this  in  the  name  of 
friendship. 

Here  are  some  "friends  of  labor,"  as  evidenced 
by  their  records:  Roosevelt  invented  a  steel- 
barbed  club  to  be  used  in  putting  down  strikes. 
Stevenson  refused  his  miners  the  privilege  of 
organizing.  Governor  Steunenberg  (Democrat), 
of  Idaho,  imprisoned  striking  miners  in  a  bull 
pen  and  subjected  the  men,  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren to  outrages  which  would  have  done  credit 
to  savages.  Mr.  McKinley  sent  troops  to  Idaho 
under  General  Merriam,  to  break  up  the  Miners' 
Unions. 

Andrew  Carnegie  addressed  the  Young  Men's 
Bible  Class  of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Baptist  Church 
on  the  night  of  Jan.  i8,  1900,  on  ''Stepping 
Stones  to  Success  in  Business."  He  said  in  part: 
"As  a  young  man  I  had  the  best  education  in 
the  world  with  which  to  begin  life.  I  was  born 
to  the  blessed  heritage  of  poverty.  I  hope  I 
speak  to  poor  young  men  to-night.  It  is  my 
earnest  hope  that  none  of  you  are  burdened  with 
the  care  of  riches.  In  these  days  we  hear  a  lot 
about  poverty,  but  it  will,  indeed,  be  a  sad  day 
when  poverty  is  no  longer  with  us.  Where  will 
your  inventor,  your  artist,  your  philanthropist. 


VvE  SHOULD  GOVERN,  NOT  OUR  ANCESTORS   lOI 

your  reformer,   in   fact   anybody   of  note,   come 
from  ?    They  all  come  from  the  ranks  of  the  poor. 
God  does  not  call  his  great  men  from  the  ranks 
of  the  rich.     To  my  mind,  the  first  thing  for  a 
yoimg  man  starting  out  in  life  is  to  determine 
to  do  more  than  his  simple  duty.     Do  not  be 
afraid  of  your  employer.     When  you  know  you 
are  right,' stick  to  it,  and  fight  it  out  with  your 
boss.    The  boy  who  can  beat  me  in  an  argument 
is  the  boy  whom  I  want  in  my  employ.     He  is 
the  boy  who  will  some  day  get  into  the  firm.     I 
say  to  fight  it  out  with  your  employer  when  you 
are  right.     He  may  want  a  partner  some  day. 
He  will  go  home  and  tell  his  wife  about  you.   He 
will  talk"  about  you  and — who  knows — he  may 
have  a  pretty  daughter.    There  are  several  quali- 
fications which  the  successful  young  man  must 
have.     First,  he  must  be  honest.     He  must  be 
moral  and  he  must  be  sober.    I  tell  you  that  the 
young  man  who  drinks  can  never  be  successful. 
You  cannot  trust  a  drinking  man.     He  must  not 
gamble.     I  want  to  say  that  I  had  just  as  soon 
trust  the  man  who  gambles  at  ^Monte  Carlo  as 
the  man  who  gambles  in  Wall  street.     Then  he 
must  never  do  anything  wrong  in  business — not 
even  if  an  employer  wants  him  to.     He  must 
stand  up  for  his  own  rights  and  be  a  man.    The 
successful  man  is  not  the  man  who  is  proficient 
in  one  thing  and  lacking  in  another.     He  must 
be  a  good  all-around  man,  capable  of  doing  all 
things  well.     There  has  been   much   discussion 
recently  as  to  the  advantages  of  wealth  and  what 
enjoyment  can  be  obtained  from  it.     The  pleas- 


102  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

ure  enjoyed  from  riches  is  the  good  we  can  do 
our  fellow  men.  Of  every  $i,ooo  given  to  chari- 
ty $950  might  as  well  be  thrown  into  the  sea. 
It  IS  bad  poUcy  to  aid  the  submerged  man.  Give 
your  aid  to  the  man  who  is  fighting  with  his  head 
above  the  water.  There  are  three  classes  of 
young  men  who  start  out  in  life :  First,  there  is 
the  one  who  says  he  aims  to  acquire  riches.  Then 
there  is  the  one  whose  ambition  is  to  obtain  a 
vainglorious  reputation.  He  is  the  young  man 
who  would  step  in  front  of  a  cannon  to  attract 
the  attention  of  men.  And,  by  the  way,  this 
shooting  business  is  bad  business.  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  taking  a  shot  at  a  man,  and  worse,  going 
out  of  your  own  country  to  do  it. 

"No  man  could  ever  get  me  to  g:o  out  of  my 
own  country  to  kill  a  man.  I  believe  that  the 
only  time  to  kill  is  when  your  native  land — your 
own  home — is  in  danger  of  invasion.  The  third, 
and  the  man  who  will  be  successful,  is  the  man 
who  starts  out  in  life  with  self-respect,  and  who 
is  true  to  himself  and  his  fellows.  He  is  the 
young  man  who  cannot  fail  to  win."  At  the 
conclusion  of  his  address,  Mr.  Carnegie  was  in- 
troduced to  those  present  by  John  D.  Rocke- 
feller. 

For  unadulterated  badness  in  advice,  this 
speech  probably  excels  anything  yet  put  forth 
by  a  defender  of  capitalism.  Imagine  a  boy 
beating  his  employer  in  argument  in  hope  of  get- 
ting a  partnership  in  business !  Imagine  a  man 
being  moral  in  commercialism!  Think  of  a  man 
"never  doing  anything  wrong  in  business !"     Of 


WE  SHOULD  GOVERN,  NOT  OUR  ANCESTORS   IO3 

course  in  "business"  nothing  is  wrong,  but  think 
of  the  blow-hole  armor-plate  Carnegie  sold  the 
United  States,  and  think  of  Homestead  and  then 
read  the  speech  again. 

OUR    MANIFEST   DESTINY. 

The  labor  problem,  the  relation  of  the  work- 
ingmen  and  the  trust  magnates  is  speedily  be- 
coming the  dominant  issue  of  political  cam- 
paigns. The  capitalist  class  has  been  in  power 
for  some  time  past,  and  so  far  from  proposing 
any  solution  beyond  court  injunctions  and  riot 
guns,  has  seemed  to  desire  the  contentment  of 
workingmen  with  the  present  conditions  of  in- 
dustrial slavery.  The  middle  class  also  preaches 
contentment  with  the  competitive  wage  system 
to  the  working  class,  but  desires  to  enlist  its  dis- 
content to  repress  that  outgrowth  of  competitive 
capitalism,  the  trust. 

From  neither  of  these  classes  can  any  solution 
of  the  labor  question  come.  Both  stand  for  cap- 
italism and  the  continued  subjection  of  labor  to 
capital.  The  working  class,  alone,  offers  a  rem- 
edy. Its  alignment  marks  the  class  struggle 
which  the  private  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production  and  distribution  brings  upon  society. 

The  capitalist  regime  divides  society  into  two 
classes,  necessarily  antagonistic :  One  which  is 
enabled  to  enjoy  property  without  work ;  the 
other,  forced  to  give  up  a  portion  of  its  product 
to  the  possessing  class.  The  working  class, 
alone,  by  the  exertion  of  labor  power,  manual  or 
mental,  produces  all  wealth.    The  capitalist  class, 


104  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

by  force  of  legal  extortion,  takes  the  greater  por- 
tion of  that  wealth  from  its  rightful  owners. 
Through  the  ownership  of  the  means  of  produc- 
tion and  exchange  this  class  compels  the  vast 
majority  to  contribute  to  its  support;  to  be  rob' 
bed  or  to  *be  starved.  This  is  our  law,  capitalistic 
law.  The  division  of  labor  and  the  mechanical 
genius  of  mankind  have  knit  society  into  a  close- 
ly related  whole.  To-day,  in  truth,  ''wealth  is 
the  creature  of  society."  Yet  their  control  of  the 
political  system  enables  a  mere  handful  to  direct 
this  social  wealth  into  their  private  pockets. 
What  is  the  plain  remedy?  The  working  class 
is  in  the  majority.  Organized  as  a  distinct  class 
party,  it  can  free  itself  from  the  slavery  of  the 
system  of  wage  labor  by  striking  at  its  cause,  the 
system  of  property.  At  the  polls  it  can  take 
possession  of  the  political  power.  Only  through 
the  organization  of  property  on  a  collective  basis, 
administered  collectively  in  the  interests  of  the 
whole  people,  can  society  escape  from  the  abuses 
of  the  present  system.  Capitalism  afifords  the 
material  element  for  the  change.  Economic  des- 
potism can  become  economic  freedom  by  legal 
recognition  of  the  industrial  revolution  v/hich 
capitalism  has  brought  about.  When  each  could 
hold  the  hand  tools  necessary  for  production,  each 
was  free  to  produce  and  all  were  useful  members 
of  society.  The  advent  of  the  machine  revolu- 
tionized the  character  of  production.  Hand  la- 
bor was  displaced  and  each  was  no  longer  free 
to  produce,  for  all  were  not  able  to  own  the  im- 
proved means  of  production.  Competition  among 


WE  SHOULD  GOVERN^  NOT  OUR  ANCESTORS   IO5 

the  dispossessed  gave  proprietors  an  advantage 
which  rendered  them  masters  of  the  situation 
and  enabled  them  to  withdraw  from  the  produc- 
ing class.  Society  thus  became  split  into  con- 
tending classes ;  the  producing  class,  or  proleta- 
riat, forced  to  dispose  of  its  labor  power  in  the 
open  market  under  conditions  of  competition 
created  by  the  continuous  displacement  of  la- 
bor :  on  the  other  side,  the  useless  capitalist  class, 
the  bourgeois,  small  in  number,  but  great  in 
power  through  ownership  of  the  means  by 
which  the  proletariat  could  exert  its  labor  power 
in  order  to  produce  the  necessities  of  life.  By 
this  process  individual  property  is  eliminated 
m.ore  and  more,  while  the  continued  concentra- 
tion of  capital  gives  the  actual  form  of  collective 
ownership. 

The  organization  of  production  in  the  modern 
"trust"  gives  us  an  almost  perfect  tool  for  social 
production.  Recognition  of  the  social  character 
of  these  gigantic  forces  is  the  only  preliminary 
necessary  to  their  adjustment  to  procure  a  sys- 
tem of  distribution  which  will  subserve  individual 
ends  for  the  benefit  and  not  at  the  expense  of  so- 
ciety. The  emancipation  of  the  working  class 
as  the  government  of  the  great  majority  means 
the  regeneration  of  all  society.  The  progress  of 
civilization  has  followed  upon  their  recognition 
of  the  social  value  of  economic  organization. 
The  working  class  has  perceived  the  revolution 
in  the  material  basis  of  present  society  brought 
about  through  collective  production,  since  its 
propertyless  condition  renders  it  sensitive  to  in- 


I06  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

dustrial  changes.  Its  demand  for  collective  own- 
ership marks  the  line  of  progress.  The  cause  of 
the  working  class  is  one  with  the  course  of  evo- 
lution. The  principles  of  the  Declaration  and  the 
Preamble  of  the  Constitution  have  been  rendered 
mockeries  by  industrial  changes.  ''The  right  to 
life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  as  the 
birthright'  of  all,  without  economic  equality,  is 
an  empty  phrase.  And  these  documents,  which, 
back  of  and  more  fundamental  than  constitution 
or  statute,  declare  the  objects  which  justify  our 
existence  as  a  nation,  have  their  significance  ob- 
scured and  lost.  No  equality  of  opportunity  ex- 
ists under  that  oft-boasted  "freedom  of  contract" 
which  gives  choice  between  starvation  or,  in  the 
more  fortunate  instances,  reduced  the  standard 
of  living  and  the  dictates  of  masters. 


WHAT  IS  LABOR'S  SHARE? 

Governmental  statistics  show  that  it  is  con- 
stantly growing  smaller.  "The  question  of  'What 
is  labor's  share  in  production?'  is  one  that  is  of 
greatest  importance  to  the  working  class,  the 
analysis  of  which  will  reveal  the  fact  that  the 
working  class  is  forced  to  a  recognition  of  the 
bare  fact  that  labor's  share  is  becoming  less  each 
year,"  says  the  Carriage  and  Wagon  Workers' 
Journal.  A  comparative  study  of  the  statistics 
of  this  country  will  show^  how  great  labor's  share 
in  the  profit  has  been  and  what  it  is  now.  Al- 
though the  amount  of  wealth  is  constantly  in- 
creasing, as  will  be  seen  from  the  foU0\ving, 
taken  from  statistics  compiled  by  tJ*^^overn- 
ment,  it  will  also  be  seen  ho\\^i^dIy  labor's 
share  is  decreasing:  ^J^  185^^116  wealth  of  the 
nation  was  $8,ooc^paooo.^^^ie  producers'  share 
was  62J  per  cent ;  non-OrKoducers'  share,  37I  per 
cent.  In  i860  the  we^h  hitreased  to  $16,000,- 
000,000.  The  producersXshare  fell  to  43J  per 
cent ;  non-producersr  share  increased  to  56^  per 
cent.  In  1870  the/wealth  was  $30,150,000,000; 
the  producers'  share  was  33  2-3  per  cent ;  non- 
producers'  share  w^as  6^1-3  per  cent.  In  1880 
the  wealth  increased  to  $48,000,000,000.  The 
producers'  share  went  down  to  24  per  cent,  while 
the  non-producers'  increased  to  76  per  cent.  In 
1890  the  wealth  was  further  increased  to  $61,- 
000,000,000,  and  the  producers'  share  fell  to  17 
per  cent,  and  the  non-producers'  increased  to  83 


I08  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

per  cent.  The  greater  the  amount  of  wealth 
production  increased,  the  greater  the  correspond- 
ing decrease  of  the  producers'  share  in  that 
wealth. 

In  the  early  days  of  these  statistics  production 
was  chiefly  carried  on  by  hand  labor ;  the  facto- 
ries and  mills  that  are  now  so  numerous  were 
then  but  few.  With  the  rapid  progress  of  the 
introduction  of  machinery  and  inventions  in  the 
productive  industries,  the  power  of  these  in- 
creased twofold,  tenfold,  yes,  twentyfold  accord- 
ing to  the  state  of  .perfection  of  the  improved 
machine.  With  this  increased  productivity  came 
also  the  army  of  the  unemployed ;  at  first  but  few 
in  number,  but  constantly  increasing  as  the  ma~ 
chine  became  more  perfect  until  the  army  of  the 
unemployed  was  estimated  at  anywhere  from 
three  to  four  million.  With  the  gigantic  strides 
which  the  concentration  of  capital  is  now  mak- 
ing, one  may  ask  himself,  ''Wiiat  will  be  labor's 
share  when  the  census  of  1900  is  taken  ?"  At  any 
rate  it  can  be  asserted  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion that  labor's  share  will  have  still  further  de- 
creased. The  trust  question  is  pressing  more  and 
more  to  the  front.  The  power  of  competition  is 
dwindling  fast  away ;  now  only  remains  a  small 
fraction  of  the  entire  productive  industry  untrust- 
ified.  While  the  trusts  and  the  trust  papers  are 
singing  the  joys  of  prosperity,  the  working  class 
is  feeling  its  condition  more  keenly  than  ever. 

Their  share  in  all  this  is  but  a  job  at  pauper 
wages.  It  is  certain  that  the  workers  will  come 
to  understand  their  true  position.    The  organized 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  IO9 

workers  even  now,  to  some  extent,  realize  that 
the  struggle,  on  the  economic  field,  must  be  sup- 
plemented by  political  action.  The  stronghold  of 
capitalism  at  its  present  time  is  its  economic 
power ;  its  weakest,  and  growing  ever  weaker, 
because  of  the  continued  crushing  out  the 
small  capitalist,  forcing  him  into  the  ranks  of  the 
working  class,  is  the  ballot.  Here  they  are  out- 
numbered, and  here  it  is  where  the  workers  can 
gain  an  easy  victory  and  here  a  victory  gained 
will  but  add  strength  for  the  economic  battle. 
Effort  in  this  direction,  along  clear-cut,  uncom- 
promising, class-conscious  lines,  will  increase  la- 
bor's share  in  the  product.  While  it  is  true  in 
certain  trades,  even  now,  wages  have  been  raised, 
yet  when  the  increased  productivity,  through 
more  perfect  machines  and  through  the  concen- 
tration of  capital,  is  taken  into  consideration,  it 
will  be  seen  that  when  the  next  balancing-up 
takes  place  that  labor's  share,  on  the  whole,  has 
decreased.  Organization  is  essential ;  more  so 
than  ever.  The  fact  cannot  be  too  strongly  em- 
phasized, but  it  also  is  a  fact  that  every  tactical 
point  through  which  it  is  possible  to  increase  la- 
bor's share  should  and  must  be  taken  advantage 
of  in  the  outward  march  for  labor's  emancipation. 
Yes,  dear  workingman,  keep  out  of  politics ; 
you  should  know  nothing  about  the  manipula- 
tion of  government.  Leave  this  to  the  sharp- 
headed  politicians.  They  will  show  you  that 
capital  is  greater  than  God  Almighty ;  that  it  has 
the  alienable  right  to  goad  you  into  desperation, 
and  if  you  dare  to  resent  its  dictates,  no  matter 


no  CAPITAL  AMD  LABOR 

how  diabolical  such  may  be,  how  easily  it  can 
have  you  punctured  with  bayonets  and  cold  lead. 
Sure,  workingman,  keep  out  of  politics,  and  sup- 
pose yourself  to  be  dead. 

Socialists  are  often  reproached  because  they 
refuse  to  unite  with  reformers  in  progressive 
measures,  and  thus  advance  step  by  step.  They 
are  accused  of  wanting  "the  whole  hog  or  none." 
Let  us  plead  guilty ;  we  do  want  the  whole  hog. 
But  this  is  not  so  much  a  matter  of  choice  with 
us ;  it  springs  rather  from  a  clear  perception  of 
the  fact  that  no  matter  what  we  might  be  satisfied 
with,  we  shall  get  either  the  "whole  hog"  or 
nothing  at  all.  No  other  course  is  open  to  us. 
There  are  no  halfway  measures  and  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  improving  the  condition  of  the  la- 
boring class  under  the  present  system,  except  in 
a  very  superficial  sense,  altogether  different  from 
what  reformers,  so  termed,  try  to  make  us  be- 
lieve. This  can  be  shown  in  a  few  words."  A 
house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand."  The 
government  cannot  endure  permanently  "half 
slave  and  half  free."  This  declaration  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  in  the  opening  speech  of  his  his- 
torical debate  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  the 
keynote,  the  "paramount"  issue  that  united  the 
scattered  forces  of  the  opposition  to  the  appar- 
ently invincible  Democracy  for  the  succeeding 
Presidential  campaign  of  1861  ;  that  is,  unite  the 
aggressive  men  who  fought  for  principle  and  the 
rights  of  man.  True,  the  question  was  appealed 
to  the  highest  finite  power  to  settle,  which  half 
was  the  whole,  and  the  reward  decided  that  the 


WHAT  IS  LABOR  S  SHARE?  Ill 

nation  should  exist  as  a  whole,  and  free.  The 
paramount  issue  was  thus  settled  after  long  plans 
of  debate  and  compromise,  but  a  fearful  price 
was  paid  for  the  compromising. 

A  parallel  condition  of  affairs  exists  to-day  in 
the  nation,  and  the  fiat  has  gone  forth  that  it 
cannot  exist  nine-tenths  wage  slaves  and  one- 
tenth  capitalistic  masters.  The  Republican  party 
has  descended  from  its  high  estate  as  the  cham- 
pion of  liberty,  the  defender  of  the  down-trodden 
and  oppressed  and  the  champion  of  the  weak, 
and  is  now  the  apologist  for  the  rich,  the  power- 
ful and  unscrupulous.  Just  so  was  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  1858,  the  mouthpiece  and  defender 
of  the  chattel  slave  power ;  it  scorned  and  laughed 
at  the  apparently  hopeless  efforts  of  the  men  and 
women  of  that  day  to  at  least  stay  the  foot  of  the 
man-hunter,  and  arrest  the  hand  that  yielded  the 
lash.  The  truth  was  crushed  to  earth,  and  still 
the  cry  went  up,  *'How  long,  O  Lord,  how  long?" 
Abraham  Lincoln  then  appeared  as  a  national 
figure,  and,  thundering  forth  the  declaration  that 
heads  this  article,  forced  the  campaign  of  conser- 
vative democracy  into  such  positions,  and  such 
utterances,  that  the  ultra-proslavery  States  could 
not  accept  Douglas  as  their  standard  bearer  in 
'61.  The  Democracy  divided  and  went  down  to 
defeat  before  the  army  of  earnest  men  and  women 
fighting  under  the  banner  of  equal  rights  of  all 
before  the  law. 

BEXEVOLEXT  PHILAXTHROPISTS. 

Xow  and  then  you  may  read  in  the  public  press 


112  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 


that  this  or  that  "philanthropist"  has  given  a  few 
thousand,  or  perhaps  a  few  hundred  thousand, 
dollars  to  some  university,  library  or  church. 
Then  follows  a  long  detailed  history  of  the  "gen- 
erous" donor  and  an  enumeration  of  his  gifts  to 
the  community.  You  may  also  read  that  the 
''better  class"  are  trying  to  elevate  the  working- 
man  and  improve  his  rude  and  coarse  manners, 
in  order  that  he  may  remain  content  with  the 
conditions  which  enable  them  to  pose  as  his 
benefactors.  And  what  is  expected  from  you 
workingmen  in  return?  You  are  expected  to 
show  your  appreciation  of  their  "goodness"  and 
charitable  kindness  by  humbly  and  thankfully  ac- 
cepting what  they  have  seen  fit  to  give  you.  You 
workingmen,  you,  the  producers  of  all  wealth, 
you  should  assume  a  humble  and  reverential  at- 
titude toward  those  who  have  never  done  one 
stroke  of  productive  work  in  their  lives,  and 
whose  only  task  is  that  of  appropriating  to  them- 
selves four-fifths  of  what  you  produce,  when  they 
apparently  return  a  small  portion  of  that  plunder 
for  your  alleged  benefit. 

These  sums  which  you  read  of  as  being  do- 
nated to  schools,  libraries  and  churches  are  given 
for  what  purpose?  To  benefit  you?  Not  at  all. 
Your  children  merely  go  to  these  schools  to  fit 
themselves  to  become  still  more  efficient  wage 
slaves  for  their  philanthropic  masters,  who  never 
give  up  control  of  these  schools  or  what  is  taught 
there.  You  go  to  the  churches  to  hear  a  servant 
of  the  same  class  tell  you  that  you  must  not  only 
be  content  with  present  conditions,  but  also  thank 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  II3 

the  Lord  for  sending  you  such  charitable  and 
kind-hearted  benefactors.  In  the  hbraries  you 
may  read  the  Hterature  provided  by  the  fore- 
thought of  your  masters,  which  assumes  that  the 
present  system  is  permanent,  and  which,  under 
the  pretext  of  ''thrift,  enterprise,  determination," 
etc..  urges  you  on  to  give  your  utmost  energy  in 
assisting  to  accumulate  profit  for  them,  while 
holding  out  a  hope,  destined  to  prove  false  in  the 
vast  majority  of  cases,  that  you  may  one  day  be- 
come an  owner  of  wage  slaves  yourself.  I  am  not 
able  to  discuss  that  subject  very  largely  because 
my  education  in  that  direction  is  very  limited, 
and  indeed  my  education  in  general  is  a  very 
limited  one,  because  my  time  since  my  boyhood 
was  mostly  occupied  in  struggling  for  a  living, 
working  hard  when  I  had  a  job  and  working 
hard  to  get  a  job  when  out  of  one.  But  from 
personal  experience  and. observation  I  have  learn- 
ed that  those  who  survive  are  usually  the  slick- 
est :  and  it  is  therefore  my  firm  opinion  that  in 
the  present  struggle  of  capital  against  labor,  the 
slickest  will  survive. 

EXPERIENCE  TEACHES. 

Experience  teaches  that  the  lessons  which  the 
workers  in  many  cities  of  the  United  States  are 
receiving  during  the  epidemic  of  strikes  and  lock- 
outs are  an  educational  force  whose  future  guid- 
ance for  those  concerned  cannot  be  underesti- 
mated. That  the  dominating  factor  in  present 
society  is  the  material  interests  of  the  capitalist 
class  is  receiving  distinct  corroboration  every  day 


114  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

in  the  sweeping  court  injunctions  against  the  re- 
bellious workingmen,  the  shotguns  in  the  hands 
of  the  police  force,  the  unmasking  of  the  alleged 
"friends  of  labor,''  and  is  confirmed  by  the  im- 
perious necessity  of  maintaining  the  interests  of 
the  capitalist  at  all  hazards,  by  the  injudicious 
declarations  of  members  of  the  ruling  class,  who 
proclaim  their  intentions  "to  starve  the  working- 
men  out,"  to  smash  their  organizations,  and  de- 
prive them  of  the  possibility  of  uniting  theii 
strength  by  insisting  upon  dealing  with  them  as 
individuals  or  unconnected  trade  groups.  All 
this  will  bring  home  to  many  of  the  workers  the 
irresistible  logic  of  the  Socialist. 

The  actions  and  declarations  of  the  capitaHst 
class  at  present  are  the  material  proofs  of  the 
correctness  of  the  Socialist  position,  and  these 
proofs  cannot  fail  to  become  a  powerful  aid  in 
helping  the  working  class  to  grope  their  way  out 
of  the  political  darkness  in  which  their  masters 
seek  to  keep  them,  into  the  full  light  of  Socialism. 
Every  act  of  the  ruling  class  to  preserve  their 
supremacy  brings  into  light  the  power  implied 
in  the  possession  of  the  machinery  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  helps  the  workers  to  see  that  whatever 
class  wields  that  power,  the  victory  of  that  class 
in  the  economic  field  is  absolutely  assured.  And 
further,  the  present  existing  troubles  cannot  fail 
to  impress  upon  them  the  truth  that  whether  the 
political  complexion  of  the  ruling  class  in  any 
locality  where  the  labor  struggle  becomes  in- 
tense be  Republican,  Democratic  or  Populist, 
the  powers  of  the  state  are  invariably  used  in  the 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  II5 

interests  of  the  propertied  classes,  and  against  the 
workers.  This  truth  they  will  learn,  not  by  theo- 
retical demonstrations  but  by  practical  experi- 
ence ;  not  by  the  misfortunes  of  the  isolated 
groups  of  workers  here  and  there,  but  in  the  uni- 
versal and  loudly  proclaimed  intentions  of  their 
exploiters  to  use  at  all  times  and  at  all  places  the 
power  which  the  possession  of  government  gives 
them  to  resist  the  demands  for  better  living  con- 
ditions on  the  part  of  the  producers. 

The  fact  of  the  class  struggle,  which  at  present 
is  showing  its  reality  with  distinctness  in  numer- 
ous cities  throughout  the  country,  and  which  the 
ruling  class  try  to  conceal  by  announcing  that 
their  side  of  the  conflict  stands  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  "law  and  order,''  cannot  fail  of  recogni- 
tion by  a  large  number  of  workingmen  who, 
taught  by  bitter  experience  the  folly  of  arming 
the  enemy  with  weapons  which  make  his  victory 
secure  and  their  own  defeat  certain,  will  inevita- 
bly be  drawn  into  the  Socialist  movement,  which 
alone  stands  for  the  political  and  economic  su- 
premacy of  the  working  class. 

The  privations  and  the  misery  which  have  been 
the  lot  of  many  thousands  of  the  workers  in  the 
conflicts  at  present  raging  will  not  have  been 
suffered  in  vain,  if  from  them  there  results  a 
class-consciousness  which  will  express  itself  in 
a  vote  so  large  that  in  it  the  upholders  of  the 
present  system  of  capitalist  robbery  may  see  the 
hand-writing  on  the  wall,  which  indicates  the  end 
of  their  class  supremacy  and  the  coming  of  an 
economic  era  in  which  the  securing  of  the  full 


Il6  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

product  to  the  producer  will  put  an  end  forever  to 
economic  classes  and  the  struggles  which  spring 
from  them.  And  that  this  forecast  will  most 
probably  be  realized,  we  see  little  reason  to 
doubt. 

In  the  following,  taken  from  the  Chicago  Rec- 
ord, it  will  be  interesting  to  see  what  measures 
the  unions  will  be  able  to  take  in  order  to  coun- 
teract its  effect:  It  is  said  that  the  steamship 
companies  have  sent  copies  of  Chicago  wage- 
rate  cards,  which  were  posted  in  the  street  cars 
and  elevated  trains,  to  all  parts  of  Europe  where 
the  vessels  touch,  and  have  caused  them  to  be 
displayed  where  mechanics  live.  W.  S.  Behel 
said:  ''The  arrival  of  the  next  three  or  four 
steamers  will  cause  some  people  to  open  their 
eyes,"  and  another  contractor  chimed  in,  "Yes, 
and  the  men  who  come  cannot  be  turned  back 
if  they  have  five  dollars  in  their  pockets."  There 
is  good  business  in  all  of  this  for  transportation 
companies.  The  capitalist  classes  will  search 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  earth  for  cheap  la- 
bor, and  if  this  latest  move  upon  their  part  will 
only  justify  the  triumphant  remark  of  Mr.  Behel, 
that  "some  people  will  have  cause  to  open  their 
eyes"  over  this  matter,  it  will  be  a  lesson  in  So- 
cialism to  the  workingmen  that  will  bear  good 
results  in  the  future.  The  "men  cannot  be  turned 
hack  if  they  have  five  dollars  in  their  pockets.'* 
Union  men  may  rest  assured  that  they  cannot  be 
turned  back  even  if  they  have  only  five  cents  in 
their  pockets.    When  capitalism  is  on  the  hunt 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  II7 

for  cheap  labor,  a  little  thing-  like  that  will  not  be 
allowed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  their  securing  it. 

The  immigration  laws  are  not  macLe  in  the 
interest  of  the  working  class,  but  in  that  of  their 
masters,  and  the  enforcement  of  such  laws  is  also 
in  the  hands  of  the  latter. 

It  is  theirs  to  loose  and  to  bind,  to  receive  or 
reject  as  their  interest  dictates,  and  they  are 
now  about  to  give  the  working  class  another 
additional  proof  of  the  results  of  folly  at  the  bal- 
lot box.  We  contend  that  while  the  means  of 
production  are  owned  and  controlled  by  private 
individuals  that  strife  between  labor  and  capital 
will  not  cease,  cannot  cease,  because  each  is  sim- 
ply striving  for  what  is  considered  its  own  wel- 
fare ;  that  millionaires  will  multiply  slowly  and 
paupers  rapidly ;  that  wealth  must  continue  to 
accumulate  in  a  few  hands,  robbing  labor  of  its 
just  reward;  that  poverty  and  its  legitimate  off- 
spring, crime,  suicide  and  insanity,  will  ever  in- 
crease ;  that  labor  will  be  more  and  more  the 
slave  of  capitalists ;  that  corruption  in  high  places 
will  grow  more  and  more  brazen-faced  and  fear- 
less ;  that  government  will  be  utterly  subservient 
to  the  power  of  wealth ;  that  the  masses  will  be 
reduced  to  a  condition  worse  than  chattel  slavery, 
a  condition  in  which  the  word  liberty  is  but  a 
mockery ;  that  the  right  of  franchise  will  be  sub- 
verted by  the  dictation  of  trust  magnates,  as  is 
obvious  from  all  present  tendencies ;  that  a  gov- 
ernment for  the  people  and  by  the  people  is  im- 
possible. 

It  is  this  private  ownership  that  amasses  mil- 


Il8  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

lions  in  a  few  hands,  that  robs  labor  of  the  fruits 
of  Its  toil,  that  gives  the  capitalist  class  the  power 
to  dictate,  to  legislatures,  to  executives  and  to 
courts ;  and  the  exercise  of  this  power  is  the 
source  of  the  evils  above  enumerated.  "Millions 
are  the  source  of  all  evil"  and  milUons  come  from 
private  ownership  of  the  means  of  production. 
Hence,  we  strike  at  the  root  of  the  evil,  at  the 
cause,  and  not  at  the  effect,  and  demand  that  their 
private  ownership,  this  "trust  socialism,"  must 
be  abolished,  and  that  the  means  of  production 
be  owned  and  operated  by  and  for  the  whole  peo- 
ple, and  not  by  and  for  the  millionaire. 

RAILROAD   EXPERIMENTS. 

The  Boston  and  Maine  Railroad  has  been 
making  a  series  of  experiments  with  a  device 
known  as  a  trimming  car,  and  which  bids  fair  to 
largely  do  away  with  the  class  of  railroad  laborers 
who  use  the  pick  and  shovel.  The  trimming  car 
has  successfully  done  the  work  of  four  hundred 
men  and  did  it  so  neatly  and  thoroughly  as  to 
give  promise  of  greatly  reducing  the  cost  of  rail- 
road construction.  In  a  recent  test  of  the  trim- 
ming car  a  thirty-mile  section  of  the  roadbed  was 
trimmed  in  four  days  at  a  cost  of  $75  a  mile.  To 
have  done  the  work  by  hand  would  have  required 
375  men  and  an  expenditure  of  $2,025  P^^  ^^Y- 
When  this  new  machine  comes  into  general  use 
on  all  the  roads  it  will  throw  a  few  railroad  hands 
out  of  employment,  and  the  majority  of  them  will 
swear  at  the  machine  while  tramping  the  streets 
looking  for  some  other  job.     Very  likely  some 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  II9 

of  their  own  rank  invented  the  machine,  and  he 
will  probably  get  a  job  running  it  for  a  while ; 
but  of  the  surplus  wealth  produced  by  the  saving 
of  expenses  he  will  not  receive  a  cent.  That  will 
all  go  to  the  owner  of  the  machine. 

Here  is.  then,  another  illustration  of  the  truth 
preached  by  the  Socialists,  namely,  that  the  wel- 
fare of  the  working  class  depends  on  the  owner- 
ship of  the  tools  of  production  and  distribution. 
So  long  as  these  remain  in  private  hands,  they 
tend  simply  to  throw  more  laborers  out  of  em- 
ployment, and  produce  more  wealth  for  the  cap- 
italist class ;  while  if  they  were  owned  and  oper- 
ated by  the  laborers  as  common  property,  they 
would  be  the  means  to  lighten  their  labor  and  in- 
crease their  comforts.  _  This  is  such  a  simple 
proposition  that  it  seems  that  even  a  blind  person 
could  see  it.  But  do  the  majority  of  the  working- 
men  see  it?  If  they  did  they  would  not  be  such 
fools  as  to  vote  as  they  do.  They  know  some- 
thing is  wrong,  but  they  do  not  know^  what  it  is, 
and  instead  of  voting  themselves  and  their  class 
into  power,  they  curse  their  luck,  and  go  on  a 
strike  only  to  lose  it.  Then  when  election  comes 
around  they  vote  to  keep  their  masters  in  power 
and  to  keep  themselves  in  slavery. 

MACHINE  vs.   MAN. 

It  is  no  consolation  to  be  told  that  improved 
machinery  makes  more  work,  even  if  true.  A 
Chicago  paper  recently  contained  a  full-page  ar- 
ticle with  the  title,  "Employment  for  Labor  In- 
creased by  Labor-Saving  Devices."    In  it  the  old 


120  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

arguments  were  all  rehearsed  to  show  that  the 
improved  methods  of  production  displaced  no 
one.  As  these  have  been  disposed  of  over  and 
over  again  by  Socialists,  it  seems  useless  to  dwell 
upon  them  now.  But  the  curious  thing  about  it 
is  that  it  is  always  taken  for  granted,  both  by  la- 
borers and  capitalists,  that  if  it  were  true  every- 
thing would  be  all  right. 

It  is  only  a  part  of  the  careful  training  which 
capitalism  has  given  to  the  mind  of  the  laborer  to 
make  him  easy  to  rule,  that  he  is  taught  to  be- 
lieve that  in  and  of  itself  "employment"  is  the 
thing  most  to  be  desired.  If  his  toil  has  not  been 
lightened,  if  his  masters  can  still  find  a  place  to 
make  profit  out  of  his  exertion,  he  never  stops 
to  think  that  there  can  be  anything  wrong.  At 
this  point  the  wage  slave  is  the  greatest  fool  of 
all  the  slaves  who  have  lived.  No  negro  would 
have  accepted  a  sufficient  excuse  for  considering 
the  cotton  gin  a  good  thing  because  it  kept  more 
chattel  slaves  busy.  No'  galley  slave  of  ancient 
Rome  would  have  declared  in  favor  of  a  machine 
for  ship  propulsion  on  the  ground  that  he  could 
use  it  more  hours  than  he  could  the  old-fashioned 
oar.  Yet  over  and  over  again,  in  unions  as  well 
as  in  the  fashionable  clubs  for  economic  discus- 
sion, the  only  question  argued  concerning  the 
effect  of  the  machine  upon  the  laborers  is  the  one 
as  to  whether  it  displaces  labor.  If  this  point  is 
decided  in  the  negative,  then  the  laborer  is  sup- 
posed to  have  no  reason  for  complaint.  Of  course 
this  is  only  an  illustration  of  the  old,  old  story  of 
the  class  struggle  and  the  two  methods  of  looking 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  121 

at  a  thing.  When  industry  is  looked  at  from  a 
capitaUst  point  of  view,  the  great  good  to  be  se- 
cured is  to  keep  the  wage  slave  employed.  It  is 
through  their  work  that  the  capitalist  lives. 
Hence,  their  work  is  a  good  thing  in  itself.  Bui 
how  about  the  laborers  ?  Is  not  the  thing  which 
he  really  desires,  leisure,  not  work ;  rest,  not  toil ; 
rec/eation,  not  labor?  He  does  not  want  more 
hours  to  exert  his  strength,  he  wants  more  time 
to  enjoy  himself. 

How'  idiotic  it  is,  then,  for  him  to  accept  as  a 
justification  for  the  introduction  of  the  machine 
that  it  does  not  throw  anybody  out  of  work. 
\\'hy,  that  is  just  what  it  should  do.  Every  time 
a  machine  is  made  somebody  ought  to  have  more 
leisure.  Every  invention  should  lighten  the  bur- 
dens resting  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  workers. 
Every  improvement  in  production  should  mean 
shorter  hours  of  toil,  a  longer  childhood,  earlier 
retirement  from  work,  better  opportunities  for 
culture,  education  and  refinement.  It  ought  to 
mean  fewer  women  in  the  workshop,  more  com- 
forts in  the  home.  It  should  be  the  means  of 
abolishing  some  particularly  obnoxious  form  of 
labor  or  of  creating  new  enjoyments  for  the 
workers.  From  this  point  of  view,  then,  let  us 
look  at  the  above  article. 

No  manufacture  offers  a  more  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  apparent  displacement  of  man  by  ma- 
chine than  the  textile  industry.  \Mth  the  power 
loom  the  weaver  now  weaves  one  hundred  and 
eighty  picks  in  a  minute,  while  with  the  old  hand 
loom  he  could  weave  but  sixty.    When  the  power 


122  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

loom  was  first  introduced  one  weaver  was  re- 
quired for  each  loom,  but  recent  improvements 
have  made  it  possible  for  one  operator  to  attend 
to  ten  looms.  That  is  to  say,  that  each  loom  does 
three  times  as  much  and  each  man  attends  to 
ten  times  as  many  looms,  so  that  each  worker 
produces  thirty  times  as  much  cloth  as  with  the 
old  hand  loom.  Now  before  this  machine  was  in- 
troduced people  did  not  go  naked.  Indeed,  the 
laborers  were  clothed  in  strong,  warm  home  spun 
that  kept  the  cold  out  as  well  as  the  more  fash- 
ionable ready-mades  of  to-day.  So  there  is  no 
reason  why  all  should  not  be  thirty  times  better 
clothed  than  then,  or  else  they  should  now  work- 
only  twenty  minutes  a  day  where  they  worked 
ten  hours  before.  Now  neither  of  these  things 
have  taken  place. 

On  the  contrary  the  women  and  children  have 
been  forced  into  the  mills  instead  of  the  man,  and 
more  laborers  with  their  families  suffer  for  cloth- 
ing than  perhaps  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  The  Socialist  points  out  that  the  reason 
for  this  is  that  the  machine  is  the  property  of  the 
capitalist  class  which  takes  from  the  worker  all 
that  he  produces  above  his  cost  of  living  and 
hence  reaps  all  the  benefits  of  the  improved  meth- 
od of  production.  But  let  us  go  on  with  the  im- 
provement described  in  the  article  referred  to. 
"The  ring  frame  improvements  in  the  spinning 
process  have  displaced  that  line  of  labor  to  such 
an  extent  that  but  one-third  the  number  of  oper- 
ators formerly  required  is  now  necessary.  With 
the  single  spindle  hand  wheel  one  spinner  could 


WHAT  IS  labor's  SHARE?  1 23 

Spin  five  skeins  of  Xo.  32  twist  in  fifty-six  hours. 
The  modern  mule  spinning  machine,  containing 
2,124  spindles,  produces  with  the  assistance  of  one 
operator  and  two  small  girls,  55,098  skeins  of  the 
same  thread  in  the  same  time.  "With  the  old 
loom  one  weaver  could  weave  forty-two  yards  of 
coarse  cotton  cloth  in  a  week — now  a  single  oper- 
ator can  turn  out  three  thousands  yards  of  the 
same  product  in  the  same  time.  The  Commis- 
sioner of  Labor  computes  that  in  the  manufacture 
of  cotton  goods  alone,  improved  machinery  has 
reduced  muscular  labor  fifty  per  cent  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  same  quality  of  goods."  Will  any 
one  say  that  the  laborers  have  reaped  the  full 
benefit  of  these  wonderful  improvements,  if  they 
are  still  kept  busy  all  the  time  at  the  same  rate,  or 
even  a  trifle  more  than  they  were  before  the  in- 
ventions were  made.  Yet  that  is  what  capitalism 
proposes,  and  those  who  vote  for  capitalist  parties 
agree  that  it  is  correct.  The  Socialist  declares 
that  these  inventions  should  belong  to  the  work- 
ers who  made  them  and  are  using  them,  and  that 
they,  and  they  alone,  should  reap  the  full  benefit 
of  the  powers  of  production.  He  declares  that 
when  a  laborer  finds  a  way  to  produce  ten  times 
as  much  with  the  same  amount  of  labor,  the  toil 
of  the  w^orld  should  be  decreased  and  the  com- 
forts increased.  He  insists  that  it  is  not  work, 
but  results,  that  he  is  after,  and  hence  he  wishes 
to  secure  and  utilize  all  the  powers  of  production 
and  distribution  in  the  interest  of  all  producers. 


THE  WORKERS'  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

I. 

Thou  shalt  join  a  union  of  thy  craft  and  help  to 
pass  laws  for  thine  own  special  benefit,  and  not 
for  a  few  obstinate  and  perverted  leaders. 

II. 

The  meetings  thereof  thou  shalt  attend,  and 
pay  thy  dues  with  regularity.  Thou  shalt  not 
attribute  unholy  purposes  to  thy  brother  in  union. 
Beware  of  the  fact  that  though  thou  be  honest, 
"there  are  others." 

III. 
Thou  shalt  not  take  thy  neighbor's  job.    Thou 
shalt  not  labor  more  than  eight  hours  for  one 
day's  work,  nor  on  the  Sabbath,  nor  on  any  of 
the  holy  days  (holidays). 

V. 

Thou  shalt  not  hire  out  thy  offspring  of  ten- 
der years.  'Toverty  and  shame  shall  be  to  him 
that  refuseth  instruction  to  his  children." 

VI. 

Thou  hast  but  one  interest  and  it  is  the  interest 
of  thy  brother. 

VII. 

Thou  shalt  not  live  in  a  hovel,  nor  feed  on  the 
husk  that  the  swine  doth  eat.  Take  thou  not 
alms  from  the  unrighteous,  lest  it  bemean  thee. 


THE  workers'  ten  COMMANDMENTS        I25 

VIII. 

Honor  the  female  sex,  for  on  this  rock  rests 
the  future  welfare  of  man. 

IX. 
Waste  not  thy  life  in  the  chase  after  the  ethe- 
real, lest  thy  substance  be  filched  from  thee. 
"The  Lord  helps  those  who  help  themselves." 
Thou  helpest  thyself  best  by  helping  thy  brother 
workers  in  the  union  of  labor. 

X. 

Thy  brother's  welfare  is  thy  concern ;  therefore 
shalt  thou  have  care  for  him  and  his.  Associate 
thyself  with  thy  brother  worker,  that  thy  pay 
may  be  heightened,  thy  hours  of  labor  shortened., 
and  the  days  of  thy  life  and  the  lives  of  all  may 
be  lengthened  and  brightened.  "Those  who  wait 
for  leaders  will  always  be  misled."  "Freedom 
with  perils  is  safer  than  tyranny  with  its  assur- 


ances." 


ORGANIZATION    THE    FIRST    EXPRES- 
SION OF  INTELLIGENCE. 

Workingmen  are  not  always  right  in  what  they 
attempt,  but  organization  is  the  first  expression 
of  their  inteUigence.  Organized  labor  is  the  pro- 
moter of  public  peace  and  happiness,  for  it  is  a 
fact  that  where  labor  organizations  are  strongest, 
there  strikes  are  most  infrequent.  With  the  great 
aggregation  of  capital  on  the  one  hand,  what 
hope  would  there  be  for  the  people  were  it  not 
for  the  balancing  influences  of  the  labor  organi- 
zations? What  hope  is  there  for  the  welfare  of 
the  republic  in  the  action  of  the  Astors,  the  Van- 
derbilts  and  the  Rockefellers  ?  If  they  would  pay 
thousands  to  marry  their  daughters  to  a  title, 
what  would  they  give  to  possess  a  title  them- 
selves? *Tt  has  and  always  will  be  the  mission  of 
the  poor  to  preserve  the  republican  form  of  gov- 
ernment." The  labor  question  is  one  of  the  most 
important  confronting  the  world.  It  is  being 
discussed  by  the  pulpit,  the  press  and  the  diplo- 
mat. Political  parties  vie  Avith  each  other  in 
adopting  labor  planks,  whether  they  expect  to 
carry  them  or  not.  Organization  is  seen  on  every 
hand.  There  are  boards  of  trade  exchanges,  the 
builders'  exchange,  bankers'  associations  and 
railroaders'  associations.  Even  the  doctors  have 
their  association  and  feel  badly  toward  a  member 
who  does  not  live  up  to  the  tenets  of  the  society. 
The  lawyers  have  a  union,  although  they  call  it  a 
bar.    "The  judge  of  the  court  is  the  walking  dele- 


ORGANIZATION  1 27 

gate  of  the  union,  and  he  is  quick  to  call  for  the 
working  card  of  a  man  who  attempts  to  practice 
law  in  his  court  without  a  diploma,  as  they  call 
their  working  card.''  Unions  are  found  only  in 
civilized  countries.  They  do  not  have  them  in 
China  or  India. 

The  strike  is  the  weapon  of  defense  of  the  la- 
bor organization.  While  we  do  not  encourage 
strikes,  workingmen  would  be  foolish  to  give 
up  that  strong  weapon.  If  the  labor  unions 
should  declare  against  strikes  the  capitalist  would 
soon  be  doing  all  the  striking  for  us.  Labor 
wants  more.  It  is  entitled  to  more  and  will  get 
more  of  the  products  of  its  toil.  It  is  a  crime 
against  the  citizenship  of  the  future  to  make  men 
and  women  work  more  than  eight  hours  per  day. 

We  want  the  children  taken  out  of  the  work- 
shops and  factories  and  educated.  It  may  be  new 
to  some  of  you,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  when  Con- 
gress passed  the  bill  annexing  the  Sandwich  Isl- 
ands and  the  Island  of  Hawaii,  slavery  existed  in 
those  islands,  and  it  was  only  by  the  untiring 
efforts  of  the  committee  on  legislation  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  that  a  resolution 
was  finally  passed  abolishing  slavery  in  the  isl- 
ands. It  is  the  prayer  of  the  labor  unionist  that 
the  flag  shall  never  wave  over  any  but  a  free  peo- 
ple. We  ask  no  favors,  simply  our  rights,  and 
it  is  our  rights  we  are  going  to  have." 

To  a  workingman  it  is  a  puzzling  fact  that  the 
question  is  never  asked,  **Why  should  a  physician 
join  a  medical  society?"  ''Why  should  a  lawyer 
affiliate  himself  with  the  bar  association  ?"  "What 


128  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

induces  a  business  man  to  pay  initiation  fees  and 
dues  into  a  chamber  of  commerce  ?"  These  peo- 
ple join  the  society  of  their  business  or  profes- 
sion for  the  standing  it  gives  them,  for  the  ad- 
vantage of  exchange  of  ideas  and  community  of 
effort  along  well-defined  lines ;  and  that  the  com- 
mon standard  of  excellence  is  raised  thereby,  and 
the  individuals  benefited  is  never  questioned.  In 
practice,  the  objects  of  the  Trade  Unions  are 
identical  with  those  of  the  association  mentioned, 
and  many  others,  and  the  inducement  for  a  pro- 
fessional or  business  man  to  join  an  organization 
of  the  character  indicated  is  many  times  intensi- 
fied in  the  case  of  the  workingman.  In  the  keen 
competition  of  the  business  world  expenses  of 
production  must  be  kept  at  the  minimum  by  the 
employer  who  would  maintain  his  position. 

Labor  receives  no  more  consideration  than  it 
is  in  a  position  to  demand  and  enforce.  This  is 
not  the  fault  of  the  individual,  but  of  the  system, 
and  many  times  employers  are  forced  against 
their  inclinations  by  competition  to  give  the 
screws  on  labor  one  more  turn  in  preference  to 
yielding  the  field  of  trade  to  less  honorable  com- 
petitors. The  hostility  of  some  employers  to 
members  of  trade  organizations  rests  solely  on 
the  ground  that  union  workmen  demand  what 
they  consider  just  wages,  while  the  average  non- 
union employe  takes  what  he  can  get.  The  one 
gets  his  rights  through  organization,  the  other 
suffers  through  the  weakness  of  individual  effort, 
and  the  weakness  of  the  latter  is  the  unjust  em- 
ployer's opportunity.    Unaided  by  the  co-opera- 


ORGANIZATION  1 29 

tion  of  his  fellows  the  individual  laborer  would 
be  reduced  to  a  pitiable  state  by  the  constant  en- 
croachment of  capital  in  the  hands  of  the  capital- 
ist. United  for  a  common  object,  the  workmen 
become  an  effective  force ;  effective  in  direct  ratio 
to  the  thoroughness  of  their  organization. 

United,  they  are  in  a  position  to  arbitrate  the 
question  of  a  just  division  of  the  profits  of  their 
toil  supplemented  and  directed  by  the  capital  of 
the  employer.  One  single  man,  standing  out 
from  his  fellows,  unaf^liated  w^ith  the  union  of 
his  craft,  sullenly  accepting  its  benefits,  or  bawl- 
ing of  his  ''freedom  from  the  tyranny  of  the  trades 
unions,"  is  a  breach  in  the  citadel,  and  every  such 
man  but  forges  the  chains  to  bind  himself  and 
his  fellows  to  conditions  of  serfdom.  That  labor 
unions  uniformly  secure  better  wages,  shorter 
hours  of  labor,  improved  conditions  and  better 
treatment  for  all  men  engaged  in  the  trade  or 
calling  within  the  spheres  of  its  influence  needs 
no  demonstration.  No  man  worthy  of  the  name 
would  enjoy  these  advantages  without  willingly 
joining  with  that  union  and  aiding  in  shaping  its 
policy  and  assisting  in  defraying  the  necessary 
expenses  of  its  maintenance  in  the  highest  condi- 
tion of  efficiency.  And  yet  there  are  individuals 
who  not  only  do  that  very  thing,  but  abuse  the 
unions  that  help  to  feed  them,  vilify  the  leaders 
and  seek  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  employer  by 
claiming  their  superior  subserviency  to  the  boss- 
es' wishes.  Trades  unions  make  for  a  higher  class 
of  workmanship.  The  most  skilled  artisans  of 
all  trades  are  to  be  found  in  their  ranks,  and  great 


130  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

care  is  used  in  securing  new  members,  to  the  end 
that  the  standard  of  excellence  is  not  lowered  by 
the  admission  of  incompetent  men.  A  union  card 
is  an  excellent  guarantee  of  skill.  If  the  unions 
could  only  exercise  their  powers  more  fully  than 
they  are  allowed  to  do  in  nearly  all  of  the  trades, 
the  apprentice  system  would  be  something  more 
than  is  usually  the  case;  system  in  theory  only. 
The  employer  seeks  only  to  produce  goods  at  a 
low  cost.  He  cares  nothing  about  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  apprentices.  Trades  unions  care  for 
their  sick  and  needy.  Many  hundred  thousands 
of  dollars  are  poured  from  their  treasuries  annu- 
ally for  charity,  and  of  this  the  general  public 
never  hears  a  word.  It  is  done  silently,  sympa- 
thetically and  promptly.  They  bury  the  dead  and 
comfort  and  aid  the  widows  and  orphans. 

There  is  no  proclaiming  from  the  housetops. 
They  educate  their  members  on  economic  lines 
and  without  entering  partisan  politics,  teach  the 
workingmen  the  true  significance  of  the  ballot 
and  the  most  effective  method  for  its  use.  All 
social  and  political  reforms  of  importance  spring 
from  and  are  disseminated  through  trades  union 
agencies.  They  are  a  safety  valve  for  the  natural 
discontent  engendered  by  the  fierce  competitive 
system.  In  European  countries,  where  Labor 
Unions  are  suppressed  and  restricted,  red  an- 
archy rears  its  ugly  head.  In  this  country,  of 
comparative  freedom,  no  danger  threatens.  The 
wasteful  competitive  system  of  the  present  is  not 
the  system  of  a  higher  civilization  toward  which 
the  world  is  striving.    Co-operation  in  some  form 


ORGANIZATION  I3I 

— community  of  effort — must  take  its  place,  and 
when  the  inevitable  change  comes,  the  ground 
for  it  will  be  paved  and  the  first  steps  taken  by 
the  Labor  Unions. 

The  thinking,  disciplined,  coherent  mass  of 
workingmen,  embraced  in  Labor  Unions,  are  the 
men  who  will  give  the  movement  the  first  grand 
impetus.  A  workingman  should  join  a  labor 
union  for  his  own  material  and  moral  good  and 
for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  Not  one  valid  reason 
can  with  candor  be  urged  against  it.  He  owes 
his  allegiance  to  the  union  of  his  craft,  in  justice 
to  himself,  to  his  fellow-men,  to  his  family  and  to 
posterity. 

THE    UNION    LABEL ITS    USE    AND    SIGNIFigANCE. 

What  the  Union  label  stands  for,  and  why  it 
should  be  generally  supported,  are  well  summed 
up  by  J.  N.  Bogart,  an  organizer  of  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  of  Labor,  and  Labor  Editor  of  the 
New  York  Evening  Journal,  in  an  article  which 
won  the  prize  offered  by  the  Social  Reform  Club 
of  New  York  for  the  best  essay  on  Union  label. 
His  reasons  were :  "Because  it  supersedes  the 
strikes,  the  lockout,  and  the  destructive  boycotts ; 
it  is  the  outward  manifestation  of  harmony  be- 
tween the  employer  and  workman,  binding  both 
by  ties  to  maintain  their  friendly  relations  and 
the  continued  approval  and  patronage  of  a  dis- 
criminating public.  Because  it  condemns  child 
labor  and  humanizes  factory  life.  Because  it 
minimizes  convict  competition  with  free  and  hon- 
est labor.     Because  it  wipes  out  tenement  and 


132  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

sweat-shop  systems  of  production.  Because  it 
has  ferreted  out,  exposed  and  cleaned  the  un- 
wholesome cellar  bakery.  Because  it  shortens 
the  work-day  and  gives  toilers  time  to  read  and 
think  and  cultivate  the  social  side  of  life.  Be- 
cause it  guarantees  a  living  wage  and  rational 
conditions  of  employment.  Because  it  stands  for 
quality  and  honest  workmanship.  Because  it  is 
not  a  weapon  for  industrial  war,  but  an  olive 
branch  held  out  to  bind  the  brotherhood  of  man." 

ATTACKS  THE  UNION. 

Washington,  June  12,  1900. 
N.  F.  Thompson,  secretary  of  the  Southern  In- 
dustrial Convention,  at  Huntsville,  Ala.,  made  a 
somewhat  sensational  attack  upon  Labor  Unions 
before  the  Industrial  Commission  to-day.  "La- 
bor Organizations,"  said  Mr.  Thompson,  "are 
the  greatest  menace  to  this  government  that  ex- 
ists inside  or  outside  the  pale  of  our  national  do- 
main. Their  influence  for  disruption  and  disor- 
ganization of  society  is  far  more  dangerous  to  the 
perpetuation  of  our  government  in  its  purity  and 
power  than  would  be  the  hostile  array  on  our 
borders  of  the  armies  of  the  entire  w^orld  com- 
bined." Mr.  Thompson  declared  that  he  made 
this  statement  from  years  of  close  study  and  a 
field  of  the  widest  opportunities  for  observation, 
embracing  the  principal  industrial  centers  both  ot 
the  North  and  South.  In  support  of  his  state- 
ment he  said  that  ''on  every  hand,  and  for  the 
slightest  provocation,  all  classes  of  organized  la- 
bor stand  ready  to  inaugurate  a  strike  with  all 


ORGANIZATION  133 

its  attendant  evils,  and  that  in  addition  to  this, 
stronger  ties  of  consoHdation  are  being  urged 
over  the  country  among  Labor  Unions,  with  the 
view  of  being  able  to  inaugurate  a  sympathetic 
strike  that  will  embrace  all  classes  of  labor  sim- 
ply to  redress  the  grievances  or  right  the  wrongs 
of  one  class,  however  remotely  located  or  how- 
ever unjust  may  be  the  demands  of  that  class." 
He  asserted  that  organizations  teaching  such  the- 
ories should  be  held  as  treasonable  in  their  char- 
acter and  their  leaders  worse  than  traitors  to  their 
country. 

Mr.  Thompson  also  said  that  many  labor  lead- 
ers are  open  and  avowed  Socialists ;  that  their 
organizations  are  weakening  the  ties  of  citizen- 
ship among  thousands  of  our  people,  in  that  they 
have  no  other  standard  of  community  obligations 
than  that  these  organizations  mculcate ;  that  they 
are  scattering  widespread  disregard  for  the  rights 
of  others  ;  that  they  are  destroying  respect  for  law 
and  authority  among  the  working  classes ;  that 
they  are  educating  the  laboring  classes  against 
the  employing  classes,  thus  creating  antagonisms 
between  those  whose  mutuality  of  interests 
should  be  fostered  and  encouraged  by  every 
friend  of  good  government ;  that  they  are  de- 
stroying the  right  of  individual  contract  between 
employes  and  employers  and  forcing  upon  em- 
ployers men  at  arbitrary  wages ;  and  that  they 
are  bringing  public  reproach  upon  the  judicial 
tribunals  of  our  country,  by  public  abuse  of  these 
tribunals,  and  often  open  defiance  of  their  de- 
crees, thereby  seeking  to  break  down  the  only 


134  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

safeguards  of  a  free  people.  "The  remedy  for 
the  evils,  he  said,  lie  principally  in  a  correct  pub- 
lic sentiment  touching  the  relations  that  should 
exist  between  labor  and  capital."  He  suggests  a 
law.  *'A  law,  he  added,  should  be  enacted  that 
would  make  it  justifiable  homicide  for  any  kill- 
ing that  occurred  in  defense  of  any  unlawful  oc- 
cupation, the  theory  of  our  government -being 
that  any  one  has  a  right  to  earn  an  honest  living 
in  this  country,  and  any  endeavor  to  deprive  one 
of  that  right  should  be  placed  in  the  same  legal 
status  with  deprivation  of  life  and  property." 

He  said  that  a  strike  and  boycott  should  be 
made  a  felony,  both  by  national  and  state  legis- 
lation. Then  he  suggested  the  formation  of  state 
and  national  Boards  of  Arbitration,  authorized 
and  empowered  to  settle  all  matters  of  difiference 
between  labor  and  capital,  and  whose  decrees 
should  be  binding  on  the  parties  affected. 

Mr.  Thompson  expressed  the  opinion  that  pub- 
lic sentiment  in  the  South  would  justify  the 
shooting, of  union  men  who  interfered  with  non- 
union men  at  work.  He  said  that  the  South  was 
holding  out  as  an  inducement  to  the  manufactur- 
ers of  textiles  that  if  they  came  South  they  would 
be  free  from  labor  strikes.  "There  is,"  he  said, 
"a  movement  on  foot  to  put  it  beyond  the  power 
of  labor  unions,  by  means  of  compulsory  arbitra- 
tion to  disturb  industrial  conditions." 


INDIA'S  DARK  PICTURE. 

As  many  people  in  India  to-day  as  the  whole 
population  of  the  United  States  are  lying  at 
death's  door  for  want  of  food.  They  are  and 
have  been  for  some  time  dying  of  starvation  at 
the  rate  of  50,000  per  day.  To  the  horrors  of 
famine  are  now  added  the  terrors  of  cholera  and 
smallpox.  The  atmosphere  in  parts  of  the  coun- 
try is  thick  with  the  fumes  of  the  dead.  Great 
corps  of  men  are  kept  busy  burning  the  swollen 
and  distorted  corpses.  The  civilized  countries  of 
the  world  are  sending  subscriptions.  "Do  not 
send  grain ;  we  have  plenty  of  that.  What  we 
need  is  money  to  buy  with,''  is  the  cry  from  the 
suffering.  The  British  government  does  noth- 
ing in  the  matter,  for,  as  stated  by  an  eminent 
British  statesman,  "English  governmental  action 
might  discourage  individual  donations  in  foreign 
lands." 

There  is  absolutely  no  hope  of  voluntary  sub- 
scriptions reaching  a  fraction  of  the  figure  neces- 
sary to  prevent  the  death  of  millions  of  human 
beings.  Unparalleled  in  history  is  this  tale  of 
wrong  and  woe.  Xo  government  pretending  to 
civilization  ever  before  let  its  subjects  starve 
when  food  was  plenty.  The  greatest  infamy  was 
left  to  be  perpetrated  by  the  English  in  India. 
No  record  of  man  has  chronicled  another  example 
of  the  richest  nation  in  the  world  denuding  a 
country  of  its  wealth  and  leaving  the  victims  to 
die  in  ditch  and  field  or  be  relieved  by  private  sub- 


136  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

scription  in  foreign  lands.  A  part  of  the  money 
extorted  from  the  poor  Indian  ryots  and  invested 
in  irrigating  the  country  would  insure  plenty  in  al- 
most every  part  of  the  land,  and  the  total  crops 
would,  under  any  arrangement  but  wholesale  ex- 
ploitation, secure  to  every  person  comfort  and 
plenty.  It  is  a  dark  picture  of  robbery  and  neg- 
lect. It  is  wholesale  murder  for  the  financial  ben- 
efit of  the  British  capitalist.  It  is  the  program  of 
the  Christian  capitalist  wherever  in  power. 

PROFIT  REGARDLESS  OF  RESULTS. 

Advices  from  Vladivostock  are  to  the  effect 
that  there  is  great  distress  in  the  Russian  Amur 
maritime  provinces.  The  events  in  China  have 
made  labor  scarce,  the  harvest  largely  failed, 
floods  were  very  destructive,  and  the  railroad  was 
monopolized  by  troops,  thus  preventing  the  im- 
portation of  supplies.  Consequently  the  prices  of 
bare  necessities  are  beyond  the  people's  means. 
Even  government  officials  have  been  obliged  to 
appeal  to  the  central  administration  for  relief.  It 
is  feared  that  a  famine  is  imminent.  The  Globe 
yesterday  afternoon  published  a  letter  from  a  Bel- 
gian gentleman,  who  has  been  traveling  to  Pekin 
via  the  Trans-Siberian  Railroad.  He  describes 
under  date  of  September  6,  1900,  what  he  saw 
in  the  Amur  river.  His  account  surpasses  in 
horror  those  previously  published.  He  says, 
"The  scenes  I  have  witnessed  during  the  three 
days  since  my  steamer  left  Blagovetchenck  are 
horrible  beyond  description.  Two  thousand  were 
deliberately  drowned  at  Moroo,  two  thousand  at 


INDIA  S  DARK   PICTURE  1 37 

Rubes  and  two  thousand  around  Blagovetchenck, 
making  a  total  of  six  thousand  corpses  encum- 
bering the  river,  among  which  were  thousands 
of  women  and  children.  Navigation  was  all  but 
impossible.  Last  week  a  boat  had  to  plow  her 
way  through  a  tangled  and  mangled  mass  of 
corpses  lashed  together  by  their  long  hair.  The 
banks  were  literally  covered  with  corpses.  In  the 
curves  of  the  stream  were  dark,  putrid  smelling 
masses  of  human  flesh  and  bone,  surging  and 
swaying  in  the  steamer's  wake  and  wash.  The 
sight  and  smell  will  ever  be  with  us.  From  Bla- 
govetchenck to  Aigun,  forty-five  kilometers,  nu- 
merous villages  lined  the  banks,  with  a  thriving, 
industrious  population  of  over  one  hundred  thou- 
sand. That  of  Aigun  was  twenty  thousand.  No 
one  will  ever  know  the  number  of  those  who 
perished  by  shot,  sword  and  stream.  Not  a  vil- 
lage is  left.  The  silence  of  death  was  around  us, 
the  ruins  of  Aigun  on  the  right,  with  broken 
down  and  crumbling  walls  and  shattered,  roofless 
houses." 

So,  Friend,  you  see  that  I  am  not  exaggerating 
when  I  say  that  anarchy  reigns  supreme  at  the 
four  quarters  of  the  globe  to-day. 

A  soldier's  pen  picture  of  life  in  the  PHILIP- 
PINES. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  Dec.  13,  1900. 
Thos.  F.  ]\IcGovern,  now  a  member  of  Com- 
pany ''G,"  Seventeenth   Infantry,  United  States 
Army,  stationed  in  the  Philippines,  has  just  writ- 
ten to  an  old  friend  in  this  city  some  unique  im- 


138  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

pressions  of  Uncle  Sam's  new  possessions  in  the 
far  east.  In  a  letter  written  at  Garmalling,  Pri- 
vate McGovern  says :  ''The  Philippines  are  a 
bunch  of  trouble  gathered  on  the  western  horizon 
of  civilization.  They  are  bounded  on  the  north 
by  rocks  and  destruction,  on  the  south  by  canni- 
bals and  earthquakes,  on  the  east  by  typhoons 
and  on  the  west  by  hoodooism  and  smuggling. 
The  climate  is  a  deceptive  combination  of 
changes  well  adapted  to  raising  Cain.  The  soil  is 
very  fertile  and  large  crops  of  insurgents  and 
treachery  are  produced.  The  inhabitants  are  very 
industrious.  Their  chief  occupation  is  in  build- 
ing trenches  and  making  bolos. 

Their  houses  are  made  chiefly  of  bamboo  and 
landscape.  The  Filipino  marriage  ceremonies 
are  very  impressive,  especially  the  cases  where 
the  wife  is  given  the  privilege  of  working  as  much 
as  her  husband  desires.  The  Filipino's  principal 
diet  is  rice,  stewed  rice  and  fried  rice.  Manila  is 
one  capital  city.  It  is  situated  on  Manila  Bay, 
a  large  land-locked  body  full  of  sharks  and  Span- 
ish submarine  boats,  for  which  Dewey  is  respon- 
sible. Cavite,  the  next  city  of  importance,  is 
noted  for  being  no  good  as  a  naval  station  and 
for  a  large  number  of  saloons  and  Chinamen. 

The  principal  exports  of  the  island  are  rice, 
hemp  and  war  bulletins.  The  imports  are  Ameri- 
can soldiers,  arms  and  ammunition.  Malarial 
fever  is  so  prevalent  that  on  numerous  occasions 
the  islands  have  been  shaken  with  a  chill.  Com- 
munication has  been  established  between  the 
numerous  islands  by  substituting  the  mosquito 


India's  dark  picture  139 

for  the  carrier  pigeon,  the  mosquito  being  larger 
and  better.  The  FiHpinos  are  friends  at  the  point 
of  our  guns. 

The  cHmate  is  pleasant  and  healthful  for  mos- 
quitoes, bugs,  snakes,  tarantulas,  roaches,  scor- 
pions, centipedes  and  alligators. 

The  soil  is  adapted  for  raising  foul  odors  and 
breeding  diseases. 

In  other  words.  New  Haven  will  be  just  exact- 
ly good  enough  for  me  as  soon  as  I  can  get  back 
to  it,  after  leaving  the  army." 

It  is  useless  to  comment  upon  the  wars  of 
strife  that  exist  right  here  at  our  doors  ;  the  pa- 
pers are  full  of  it  every  day.  To  borrow  a  Bible 
quotation,  *'A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand."  I  may  add  that  this  nation  cannot  en- 
dure half  republic  and  half  colony,  half  free  and 
half  vassal,  half  monarchy  and  half  anarchy. 

The  people  are  divided  into  w^arring  factions. 
The  cause  of  the  division  is  the  right  of  a  few 
to  command  the  employment  and  lives  of  the 
others. 

How  long  should  this  country  continue  with  a 
minority  in  charge  of  the  means  by  which  all  the 
people  live? 

How  long  should  this  nation  endure  part  rob- 
bers and  part  robbed,  with  none  truly  free?  Not 
very  long  if  the  signs  of  the  times  have  anything 
to  do  with  it.  Here  is  a  bulletin,  red  hot  from 
the  wires  of  London : 

January  16,  1901. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Wolver-Hampton  Cham- 
ber  of   Commerce    to-day,    ex-Prime    ]^Iinister 


140  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

Rosebery  made  a  speech  in  which  he  dealt  in  a 
most  serious  strain  with  the  industrial  and  com- 
mercial competition  by  which  Great  Britain  was 
faced.  He  declared  that  the  future  was  dark  and 
gloomy.  It  was  difficult,  even  unwise,  to  try  to 
prophesy  what  it  might  have  in  store.  He  was 
not  alarmed  by  the  constant  piling  up  of  the  im- 
mense and  most  costly  armaments  by  Europe. 
They  rather  tended  toward  peace  than  otherwise. 
The  war  he  feared  was  not  military.  It  was  that 
great  war  of  trade  which  was  inevitably  coming 
and  which,  so  far  as  he  could  see,  would  be  one 
of  the  greatest  and  most  serious  that  Great  Brit- 
ain ever  had  to  cope  with  (and  that  is  competi- 
tion, the  life  of  trade).  ''While  not  putting  other 
nations  out  of  the  category,  it  was  from  the 
United  States  and  Germany  that  the  British  had 
the  most  to  fear.  America,  with  its  resources  and 
the  acuteness  and  enterprising  spirit  of  its  peo- 
ple, was  the  most  formidable  of  all  competitors. 
Lord  Rosebery  remarked  upon  one  striking  feat- 
ure of  the  American  competitor,  namely,  that 
the  great  individual  fortunes  being  made  in  the 
United  States  were  not  employed  as  they  proba- 
bly would  be  in  England,  to  enable  their  makers 
to  retire  and  enjoy  social  and  other  pleasures,  but 
were  invested  in  great  trusts  and  syndicates  to 
form  power  for  concentrating  attacks  on  British 
trade." 

Now,  my  lord,  what  the  trusts  are  doing  for 
England  they  will  also  do  for  every  other  nation. 
If  you  will  wait  a  short  while  longer  they  will 
make  us  all  look  like  thirty  cents,  and  then,  put 


India's  dark  picture  141 

us  on  an  equal  footing  and  address  one  another 
as  Mr.  So-and-So,  and  bring  about  this  very 
much  needed  reform  in  an  amiable  and  con- 
genial way. 


"CAN'T  CHANGE  HUMAN  NATURE." 

The  silliest  opponents  of  Socialism  are  the  very 
good  Christians  who  come  up  to  us  with  a  "you- 
can't-get-over-this-argument"  air  and  say, 
"You'll  never  succeed,  for  you  will  never  be  able 
to  change  human  nature."  This  is  rich  from 
Christians,  whose  only  work,  in  which  they  have 
already  spent  a  score  of  centuries,  is  to  try  to 
change  human  nature ;  that  is,  by  "coming  to 
Jesus,"  and  being  "born  again,"  and  "getting  a 
new  heart,"  etc.  The  infidels.  "You  can't  change 
human  nature,"  says  the  shallow  thinker.  Think 
not?  Well,  just  give  us  a  chance,  and  if  I  do  not 
change  it  I  will  change  its  manifestations ;  it  is 
the  same  thing  for  all  practical  purposes  of  So- 
cialism. 

Suppose  I  am  lord  of  the  wind  and  waves,  and 
wreck  at  sea  the  ship  you  are  on,  and  I  providen- 
ially  get  fifty  or  sixty  of  you  safely  away  in  boats 
and  on  rafts  with  plenty  of  provisions  and  good 
hopes  of  final  rescue.  You  are  all  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen  then,  and  behave  decently  to  each  other. 
But  suppose  I  keep  you  out  of  hope  for  a  week, 
two,  three,  and  until  your  last  biscuit  is  gone,  and 
you  are  mad  with  sickness,  hunger  and  thirst. 
Then  with  the  composition  of  your  blood  and 
other  bodily  juices  altered,  you  are  no  longer 
gentlemen  and  ladies,  but  ugly,  ill-tempered, 
wolfish  brutes,  ready  to  draw  lots  for  some  one 
to  be  killed  and  eaten  to  save  the  rest.  You  have 
become  cannibals.    I  did  not  change  human  na- 


can't  change  human  nature  143 

ture,  did  I  ?  No,  but  you  might  as  well  be  wolves 
as  human  beings  acting  just  like  wolves.  Any- 
way, you  would  be  a  totally  different  chemical 
formulae,  and  that  is  quite  as  good — or  bad — as 
a  change  of  nature.  Then  if  I  should  send  a  sail 
in  sight  and  rescue  you,  and  gradually  fill  you 
up  with  good  victuals  and  warm  and  nourish  you 
back  to  health,  with  the  return  of  your  bodily 
juices  to  their  normal  former  state  you  return  to 
decency  and  gentility,  do  you  not? 

Well,  then,  do  you  not  think  that  this  great 
community  of  cannibals  and  vicious  competitors 
for  bread  could  be  properly  fed  and  clothed,  and 
housed,  and  educated,  as  big  a  chemical  change 
could  be  worked  in  them  as  in  you,  and  they 
would  be  just  as  fully  redeemed  morally? 

Depend  on  it,  the  rest  of  the  bad  and  wicked 
world  is  as  amenable  to  proper  treatment  as  you 
are,  in  spite  of  your  self-conceit.  At  any  rate, 
having  been  saved,  or  never  having  needed  sal- 
vation yourself,  you  might  help  us  Socialists  to 
put  the  victual  cure  into  practice. 


"A  FABLE." 

Some  time  ago  a  wolf  went  to  a  bear  and  said : 
"I  have  seen  Farmer  Jones  digging  in  his  field 
the  last  couple  of  days,  and  I  think  he  is  grub- 
bing up  a  stump."  'To  my  opinion  he  is  plant- 
ing a  tree,"  said  the  bear,  as  they  went  marching 
to  their  feast.  "I  think  he  is  grubbing  up  a 
stump,"  yelped  the  wolf."  "He  is  planting  a 
tree,"  growled  the  bear.  They  made  so  much 
noise  over  their  love  feast  that  Farmer  Jones  had 
ample  time  to  take  to  his  heels  and  watch  the 
consequences.  ''How  can  you  be  so  obstinate," 
exclaimed  the  wolf,  in  a  temper,  "And  how  can 
you  be  such  an  ignoramus?"  replied  the  bear, 
getting  raving  mad  as  they  neared  the  brink  of 
the  pit.  Then  Farmer  Jones  heard  a  yelp,  and  a 
growl,  and  saw  a  change  in  the  atmosphere  for 
a  few  minutes,  and  then  he  went  to  the  edge  of 
the  brink  and  exclaimed,  "One  said  it  was  a  stump 
and  the  other  a  tree,  but  it  was  neither.  It 
was  a  pit  and  both  have  fallen  into  it,  to  meet 
their  death.  Argument  may  enlighten,  but  ob- 
stinacy digs  a  pitfall  for  its  own  feet." 


THE  RAYS  OF  SOCIALISM. 

Let  us  first  glance  at  the  conditions  as  the  So- 
cialist sees  them,  so  that  we  may  better  judge 
the  adequacy  of  his  remedy,  i.  We  have  the 
concentration  of  wealth  by  the  few.  2.  Admit- 
ting that  labor  creates  everything,  even  capital  it- 
self, we  find  that  the  creator  of  wealth  gets  a 
very  small  portion  of  his  product.  3.  We  see 
the  enormous  waste  in  our  present  system,  the 
waste  in  advertising,  in  innumerable  and  unnec- 
essary plants,  waste  in  parallel  railroads,  in  use- 
less traveling  salesmen ;  in  fact,  waste  in  every- 
thing except  the  large  trusts,  etc. 

4.  We  see  the  world  filled  with  plenty,  plen- 
ty of  food,  clothes  and  shelter,  and  wc  see  the 
great  majority  suffering  for  want  of  common 
necessities. 

5.  We  see  the  class  of  idle  rich  enjoying  every 
possible  luxury  without  doing  a  stroke  of  work. 

6.  We  see  the  inevitable  trust  gradually  mo- 
nopolizing every  branch  of  trade,  so  that  the 
masses  are  made  dependent  upon  them  for  exist- 
ence. 

7.  We  see  great  labor-saving  devices  put  in 
operation  everywhere,  knowing  that  every  one 
makes  so  much  less  employment  for  labor. 

8.  We  see  the  great  industries  economizing 
by  private  co-operation,  and  thus  again  making 
employment  more  scarce, 

9.  We  see  the  toiler  being  gradually  pauper- 
ized and  therefore,  in  the  end,  brutalized,  losing 


146  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

all  moral  and  intellectual  attributes,  a  veritable 
"man  without  a  hoe." 

10.  We  find  the  deadly  competitive  strife  for 
individual  gain  breeding  dishonesty,  immorality, 
vice  and  degradation.  ''These  are  the  condi- 
tions as  seen  through  the  glasses  of  the  Socialist 
and  as  a  panacea  for  these  and  a  thousand  other 
ills  too  numerous  to  mention  he  asks  the  govern- 
ment to  assume  the  responsibility  of  providing 
employment  for  all  and  of  supplying  the  great 
human  family  with  food,  clothes  and  shelter.  He 
contends  that  if  every  man  were  willing  to  do 
his  share  of  useful  work,  that  every  man  would 
have  to  work  only  about  three  hours  a  day  in 
order  to  furnish  the  world  with  everything  it  now 
has,  and  that  no  man  could  want  for  more  than 
his  own  labor  would  yield.  I  believe  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  a  thousand  other  reliable  authori- 
ties bear  him  out  in  this. 

Of  course  this  system  would  eventually  de- 
stroy interest  and  profit,  and  thus  no  man  could 
amass  a  fortune  and  live  in  luxury  while  others 
were  furnishing  him  the  means.  When  one  be- 
gins to  compute  the  enormous  amount  of  interest 
paid  every  day  and  then  begins  to  realize  that 
every  cent  of  interest  falls  eventually  upon  the 
shoulders  of  labor,  it  is  not  strange  that  labor 
would  destroy  the  usury,  for  all  interest  is  usury. 
The  Socialist  applauds  the  trusts  and  claims  that 
they  are  paving  the  way  for  Socialism.  The  trust 
is  founded  on  Socialistic  principles,  and  when 
their  immense  benefits  are  applied  to  all  the  peo- 
ple instead  of  the  few,  as  at  present,  when  every 


THE   RAYS  OF   SOCIALISM  I47 

industry  is  a  public  trust,  then  the  pubhc,  that  is, 
the  government,  wiU  owe  every  man  an  oppor- 
tunity to  earn  a  Hving.  When  the  Sociahst  is 
asked  if  his  system  would  not  destroy  all  ambi- 
tion, all  incentive  to  improvement,  by  crushing 
out  individual  enterprises,  he  will  reply  by  say- 
ing: "If  ambition  consists  in  getting  rich  at  the 
expense  of  another ;  if  there  is  no  other  worthy 
incentive  than  to  get  gold ;  if  there  is  no  other 
reward  for  individual  enterprise  than  gold — yes." 
While  I  am  to  some  extent  an  individualist,  as 
well  as  a  collectivist,  I  do  not  believe  in  a  sys- 
tem which  makes  a  lot  of  isolated  units  all  strug- 
gling away  in  different  directions  after  the  al- 
mighty dollar.  I  believe  in  co-operation  to  get 
the  greatest  possible  good  from  ^lother  Earth 
for  the  great  human  family,  with  the  least  possi- 
ble effort.  I  believe  in  union ;  for  in  union  there 
is  strength.  It  perhaps  does  not  occur  to  many 
that  what  is  one  man's  gain  must  be  somebody 
else's  loss.  There  can  be  no  profit  without  some- 
body losing  just  so  much,  and  inasmuch  as  labor 
creates  all  wealth,  labor  pays  all  profit,  and  all 
profit  is  labor's  loss.  Yet  the  majority  of  men 
think  that  the  workingman  gets  his  just  deserts. 
They  point  to  the  saloon,  to  the  equal  oppor- 
tunity for  all  to  acquire  riches,  to  the  reasonable 
reward  of  brains,  and  to  the  fact  that  somebody 
must  do  the  world's  dirty  work.  This  is  silly, 
superficial,  ignorant  nonsense.  The  Socialist 
prom.ises  to  do  away  with  intemperance,  to  equit- 
ably reward  brains  and  muscle,  and  to  give  all 
equal  opportunity. 


148  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

WHY  AMERICAN  WORKINGMEN  SHOULD  BE  SOCIAL- 
ISTS. 

BY  H.  G.  WILSHIRE. 

A  Socialist  is  one  who  desires  that  the  wealth 
of  a  nation  be  owned  collectively  by  all  the  peo- 
ple, rather  than  that  it  should  be  held  by  a  small 
fraction  of  them,  commonly  known  as  capitalists. 
By  the  "wealth  of  the  nation"  is  meant  the  land, 
the  railroads  and  the  telegraphs,  the  flour  mills, 
the  oil  refineries ;  in  short,  all  of  those  agencies 
by  means  of  which  food,  clothing  and  other  com- 
modities that  mankind  desire  are  produced.  By 
Socialism  we  mean  collective  ownership  and 
management  of  all  wealth-producing  industries. 
For  instance,  just  as  some  of  the  industries,  such 
as  the  common  school,  the  postoffice,  etc.,  are 
now  owned  and  managed  by  the  people ;  under 
Socialism,  not  only  these  but  all  other  industries 
would  be  owned  and  managed  by  the  working 
class,  the  capitalist  class  having  been  abolished. 
In  short,  Socialists  propose  that  instead  of  Mor- 
gan and  Rockefeller  owning  the  United  States 
and  running  it  for  their  selfish  benefit,  we,  the 
people,  shall  assume  possession  of  it  ourselves 
and  run  it  for  our  own  benefit.  This  is  such  a 
very  simple  proposition  that  any  one  should  be 
able  to  understand  it  without  an  elaborate  expla- 
nation. That  every  patriotic  American,  and 
especially  every  workingman,  should  not  be  in 
favor  of  Socialism  is  only  to  be  explained  by  his 
ignorance  of  what  Socialism  really  means. 

It  is  certainly  a  praiseworthy  sentiment  that 


THE   RAYS  OF  SOCIALISM  I49 

the  citizens  and  inhabitants  of  a  nation  should 
desire  to  own  their  own  country.  It  is  as  natural 
for  him  as  it  is  for  a  man  to  desire  to  own  his 
own  house,  rather  than  to  rent  it  of  a  landlord. 
The  motive  that  inspires  a  father  to  provide  a 
home  for  his  family  is  of  the  same  character,  but 
of  a  broader  nature  as  the  motive  that  animates 
the  Socialist  who  desires  that  all  may  have  a 
home  that  they  can  call  their  own.  We  said  that 
every  workingman  who  understood  what  Social- 
ism meant  would  certainly  be  a  Socialist,  for 
assuredly,  workingmen,  your  condition  in  life  is 
not  such  that  you  would  fear  a  change.  You  are 
poor ;  you  are  dissatisfied  with  your  lot  in  life ; 
you  have  a  sense  of  being  unjustly  dealt  with  by 
society ;  you  know  that  your  labor  alone  pro- 
duces all  the  good  things  of  life,  and  you  know 
that  some  one  else  enjoys  them ;  you  know  all 
these  things,  and  you  know,  or  you  should  know 
that  as  simple  a  thing  as  casting  your  ballot  in- 
telligently can  produce  a  change,  so  that  you  will 
receive  and  enjoy  all  the  fruits  of  your  labor  with 
no  necessity  of  giving  the  lion's  share,  or  any 
other  share  to  such  blood-sucking  parasites  as 
Rockefeller,  Astor,  \'anderbilt  &  Co. 

It  is  true  that  there  is  some  excuse  for  you  not 
realizing  that  your  shackles  are  but  figments  of 
your  own  imaginations.  You  are  befooled  and 
humbugged  at  every  source  to  which  you  look 
for  knowledge.  The  newspapers  ostensibly  de- 
voted to  the  interests  of  the  workingmen  in  real- 
ity are  but  tools  of  their  owners,  the  capitalists. 
The  politicians,  notorious  liars  and  knaves,  you 


150  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

scarcely  listen  to,  except  to  deride.     That  you 
are  robbed  of  your  earnings  through  the  iniqui- 
tous laws  of  an  unjust  social  system  is  so  plain 
that  it  would  seem  unnecessary  to  state  it,  were 
not  so  many  quack  remedies  for  social  ills  pro- 
posed, the  application  of  which  contemplates  no 
change  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  our  pres- 
ent competitive  system.     You  may  safely  regard 
any  political  measure  that  does  not  at  least  tend 
to '  the    abolition    of    the    keystone    of    modern 
society,  ''the  wage  system,"  as  being  unworthy 
of  workingmen's  support.     Reflect  on  your  mis- 
erable condition  in  life  and  consider  that  you,  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  are  an  inhabitant 
of  a  nation  possessing  natural  resources  capable 
of  easily  supporting  over  ten  times  its  present 
population.    You  are  informed  by  uncontroverti- 
ble statistics  that  by  the  development    of    the 
steam   engine   and   labor-saving   machinery   the 
labor  of  one  man  can  to-day  produce  commodi- 
ties,  food,   clothing,   lodging,   etc.,   sufficient  to 
more  than  comfortably  provide  for  twenty,  and 
yet  the  fact  stares  you  in  the  face  that  the  return 
you  get  for  your  labor  scarcely  keeps  you  alive. 
Knowing  these  things,  can  you  remain  contented 
to  live  under  a  social  system  that  at  the  most 
gives  you  in  exchange  for  your  labor  an  exist- 
ence more  miserable  than  that  of  a  slave,  be- 
cause more  insecure,  and  even  makes  you  con- 
sidered lucky  in  getting  any  employment  at  all? 
Do  you  wonder  to  whom  the  surplus  produced 
goes,  and  why?     Let  us  put  the  matter  more 
clearly  before  your  eyes.    Consider  that  the  ma- 


THE   RAYS   OF   SOCIALISM  I5I 

chlnery  of  production — that  is,  the  railroads,  the 
flour  mills,  the  oil  and  sugar  refineries,  and  even 
the  very  land  itself — do  not  belong  in  common  to 
all  the  citizens,  but  to  a  very  small  class  called 
capitalists,  some  of  whom  are  not  even  citizens 
and  many  of  whom  have  never  set  foot  in  the 
country.  ~^ 

Now,  to  get  clothing,  food  and  lodging,  both 
land  and  machinery  must  be  employed,  and  if 
one  class  own  these  essentials  of  production,  it 
is  evident  that  it  can  demand  of  the  other  class 
that  do  not  own  them  as  much  rent  as  it  pleases 
•for  the  use  of  them.  And  what  does  it  please  to 
demand?  Answer:  Everything  that  you  pro- 
duce, except  a  very  small  part  which  it  allows 
you  to  keep,  just  sufficient  for  you  to  sustain 
your  miserable  existence.  Workingmen,  you  are 
in  almost  exactly  the  same  position  as  horses  in 
that  you  can  never  expect  to  get  any  more  than 
just  enough  to  keep  you  in  a  condition  to  be  able 
to  work,  the  only  difference  being  that  the  em- 
ployer of  the  horse  feeds  him  even  w^hen  he  can- 
not for  the  time  being  use  his  labor,  while  the 
employer  of  you  workingmen  feed  and  clothe 
you  only  when  you  are  useful  to  him,  and  when 
you  are  not  useful  to  him,  as  in  dull  seasons,  he 
lets  you  feed  yourselves  the  best  way  you  may, 
and  you  can  starve  as  far  as  he  is  concerned.  He 
loses  money  if  his  horse  dies,  but  he  loses  noth- 
ing if  you  starve.  You  ask.  Why  do  not  capital- 
ists pay  higher  wages?  Why  do  they  not  pay 
wages  sufficient  to  allow  you  to  properly  feed 
and  clothe  yourselves,  your  wives  and  your  chil- 


152  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

dren  ?  Why  do.  not  workingmen  successfully  de- 
mand wages  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  educate 
their  children  in  the  public  schools?  Why  mock 
them  with  free  schools  when  they  must  send 
their  children  to  the  mine  and  the  factory  to  earn 
food  for  the  family?  The  answer  is  simple  and 
plain.  As  long  as  there  are  millions  of  unem- 
ployed men  in  the  United  States  only  too  glad  to 
get  a  chance  to  work  for  wages  that  will  afiford 
them  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  wages  cannot 
rise  above  that  minimum  rate.  The  truth  of  this 
statement,  and  it  is  most  important  that  every 
workingman  should  know  its  truth,  is  easily 
proven.  Consider  a  familiar  every-day  occur- 
rence in  life.  A  and  B  each  own  a  coal  mine. 
Each  is  selling  his  coal  at  the  lowest  price  possi- 
ble in  order  to  undersell  the  other.  The  item  of 
labor  is  the  chief  one  in  the  expense  of  mining 
coal;  so,  supposing  that  A  pays  his  men  less 
than  B,  then  he  is  in  the  position  of  being  able  to 
undersell  B,  and  unless  B  is  also  able  to  get  his 
labor  as  cheap  as  A,  he  must  retire  from  the  field. 
This  shows  that  the  capitalist  could  not,  under 
our  competitive  system,  pay  higher  wages,  even 
though  they  might  so  wish.  Then,  on  the  other 
hand,  consider  the  laborer,  the  miner.  Suppose 
he  is  getting  one  dollar  per  day,  and  some  poor 
fellows  out  of  employment  came  along,  some 
emigrants,  for  instance,  who,  rather  than  starve, 
offers  to  work  for  seventy-five  cents  per  day,  it  is 
then  certain  that,  as  the. owners  of  the  mines  are 
forced  to  always  buy  the  cheapest  labor  that  is 
offered,  the  one  dollar  a  day  laborer  must  suffer 


THE   RAYS  OF  SOCIALISM  1 53 

a  reduction  on  his  wages  to  seventy-five  cents, 
or  be  replaced  by  the  emigrant  who  will  work  for 
seventy-five  cents.  Hence  we  see  how  it  is  that 
the  pressure  of  the  unemployed  upon  the  labor 
market  always  keeps  the  price  of  labor  at  the 
lowest  notch.  And  the  more  labor-saving  ma- 
chinery that  is  introduced  the  more  men  are 
thrown  out  of  employment  and  the  greater  the 
struggle  between  laboring  men  to  get  hired  at 
any  price.  Considering  how  it  is  even  thus  un- 
der our  present  wage  system  that  wages  must 
remain  low,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  absurd  it  is  for 
Democrats  or  Republicans  to  claim  that  free 
trade  or  protection  can  make  wages  higher. 
W'orkingmen  are  coming  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  reliance  to  be  placed  on  either  of 
the  old  parties  or  any  new  party  that  capitalism 
may  wish  to  fool  the  workmen  with,  and  that 
they  must  organize  a  party  of  their  own,  which 
will  overthrow  the  wage  system  entirely. 

Workingmen,  Americans,  the  issue  is  plain. 
Yours  is  the  choice  whether  to  remain  slaves  in 
your  own  country,  fettered  by  your  own  hand ; 
to  see  your  wives  and  your  children  live  in  pover- 
ty and  squalor,  aye,  and  often  star^'e  before  your 
very  eyes,  or  whether  you  will  be  free  men,  not  in 
name  only  but  in  reality ;  whether  you  will  own 
your  own  country  and  enjoy  the  full  fruits  of 
your  honest  labor.  Workingmen  say :  "Ah,  well 
enough.  These  are  fine  words,  but  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  anything  to  be  done.  Workingmen  have 
always  been  poor  and  always  will  remain  poor. 
You  Socialists  simply  make  us  feel  our  poverty 


154  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

more  keenly  and  make  us  discontented  without 
showing  us  any  practical  plan  to  abolish  the 
causes  of  our  discontent.  Of  course,  we  wish 
to  provide  more  liberally  for  ourselves  and  fami- 
lies. Certainly  we  would  prefer  sending  our  chil- 
dren to  school  rather  than  to  the  factory.  We 
know  that  we  are  virtually  slaves,  and  we  cer- 
tainly would  like  to  end  our  wage  slavery.  What 
fool  would  not  have  his  fellowmen  own  their  own 
country  rather  than  have  a  band  of  capitalists 
own  it?  But  even  if  the  wealth  of  the  nation 
were  divided  up,  as  we  suppose  you  Socialists 
propose,  it  would  simply  be  a  matter  of  time  be- 
fore Rockefeller  &  Co.  would  have  it  all  again." 
Workingmen,  you  are  mistaken.  Socialists  do 
propose  a  most  practicable  and  feasible  solution 
of  the  problem  of  how  to  abolish  poverty.  If  you 
will  consider  our  plan  you  cannot  help  but  agree 
that  its  accomplishment  would  prevent  any  fear 
of  Rockefeller  &  Co.  ever  getting  our  country 
away  from  us  after  it  is  once  restored.  Social- 
ism means  anything  but  the  division  of  the  own- 
ership of  the  means  of  production.  Socialism, 
as  we  said  before,  contemplates  the  absolute  con- 
centration of  the  ownership  of  the  wealth  of  the 
country  into  the  collective  control  of  the  people 
themselves.  The  only  division  of  things  that  So- 
cialists propose  is  the  fair  division  of  commodi- 
ties produced,  but  not  by  any  means  do  they  pro- 
pose the  division  of  the  ownership  of  the  ma- 
chinery that  produced  those  products.  For  in- 
stance, the  people  will  collectively  own  the  land, 
the  grain  elevators,  the  flour  mills  and  the  baker- 


THE   RAYS   OF   SOCIALISM  1 55 

ies,  while  the  people  individually  will  own  the 
product,  the  bread.  In  answer  as  to  the  practi- 
cability of  collective  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production,  it  is  best  answered  by  the  inspection 
and  consideration  of  how  the  machinery  of  pro- 
duction in  the  United  States  is  at  present  man- 
aged. Within  the  last  few  years  the  owners  of 
the  various  o:reat  industries  of  this  countrv, 
through  the  inordinate  over-extension  of  their 
plants  and  the  consequent  fierceness  of  the  war- 
fare of  competition  arising  from  overproduction, 
have  been  compelled  to  consolidate  their  inter- 
ests into  monopolies,  simply  as  a  matter  of  sheer 
necessity,  to  preserve  themselves  from  threaten- 
ing bankruptcy. 

Having  in  mind  the  million  of  half-naked  and 
half-fed  men,  women  and  children,  it  may  seem 
to  many  that  the  excuse  of  "overproduction"  that 
the  trusts  give  for  their  existence  is  the  boldest 
of  lies. 

But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  owners 
of  the  sugar,  beef  and  other  trusts  are  not  in 
business  from  philanthropic  motives,  but  purely 
and  simply  to  make  money  for  themselves,  so 
that  the  mere  fact  of  people  wanting  or  even 
starving  for  the  want  of  what  their  machinery 
produces  does  not  constitute  any  sound  business 
reason  for  capitalists  to  feed  them.  Unless  hun- 
gry people  have  money,  they  have  no  legal  right 
to  food.  They  may  be  fed  by  charity,  but  they 
have  no  legal  right  under  our  present  social  sys- 
tem to  demand  help.  So  we  see  that  as  far  as 
the  capitalist  is  concerned  there  is  an  overpro- 


156  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

duction  in  goods  when  he  finds  no  buyers,  al- 
though there  may  be  plenty  who  want  but  have 
no  money  to  buy.  It  is  quite  palpable  that  in 
a  country  as  productive  as  the  United  States 
and  where  wage-workers,  the  great  consuming 
class,  are  paid  such  a  small  part  of  what  is  pro- 
duced, there  must  always  be  a  great  surplus  re- 
maining in  the  hands  of  the  capitalists  unless 
they  avoid  such  a  result  by  restricting  produc- 
tion— and  restricting  production  means  shutting 
down  factories — turning  out  of  employment  will- 
ing workers  and  starving  the  nation  in  the  midst 
of  plenty.  While  we  Socialists  agree  that  from 
the  capitalistic  standpoint  anti-trust  laws  are  ab- 
surd, as  trusts  are  a  necessary  development  of 
our  competitive  system,  yet  at  the  same  time  we 
realize  that  the  trusts  and  monopolies,  unless 
checked  in  their  career  by  nationalizing  them, 
will  throw  the  people  into  a  slavery  worse  than 
that  recorded  by  history.  Since  monopoly  is  the 
future  determining  factor  in  production,  and 
competition  is  forever  dethroned,  we  see  each  oi 
our  great  industries  controlled  by  one  corpora- 
tion, headed  by  one  man — a  captain  of  industry 
— and  this  state  of  afifairs  is  what  more  than  any- 
thing else  demonstrates  the  practicability  of  So- 
cialism. Certainly  if  Jay  Gould  can  successfully 
manage  the  telegraphs  of  the  country,  there  can 
be  no  difficulty  in  us,  the  people,  doing  the  thing. 
We  already  manage  the  post  offices — why  not 
the  telegraphs?  Again,  if  Mr.  Rockefeller  man- 
ages the  oil  business,  Mr.  Vanderbilt  the  railways, 
Mr.  Armour  the  beef  business,  Mr.  Pillsbury  the 


THE   RAYS   OF   SOCIALISM  157 

flour  business,  Mr.  Carnegie  the  iron  business, 
Mr.  Havemeyer  the  sugar  business,  Mr.  Corbin 
the  coal  business,  Mr.  Dalrymple  the  bonanza 
wheat  farms  and  Mr.  Astor  a  great  part  of  the 
real  estate  in  New  York;  we  say,  if  these  cap- 
itaUsts  can  manage  these  properties  for  their  own 
sehish  ends,  that  we,  the  people,  can  just  as  well 
manage  them  for  our  own  use  and  benefit.  All 
we  have  to  do  in  order  to  own  our  country,  is  for 
a  majority  to  vote  for  the  party  that  is  pledged  to 
carry  out'^that  idea,  and  the  only  party  that  is  so 
pledged  is  the  Socialist  Party.  With  the  success 
of  that  party  and  the  change  that  it  would  bring 
about,  no  one  need  work  over  three  hours  per 
dav,  and  everyone  who  wanted  to  work  could 
find  employment,  receiving  in  return  the  full 
fruits  of  labor. 

Everyone  would  have  leisure,  children  would 
be  educated,  all  would  be  free,  and  happiness 
would  reign  supreme.  American  workingmen, 
we  have  shown  you  the  road  to  freedom.  When 
you  pursue  that  path  you  will  be  free.  Before 
that,  never. 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  AS  VIEWED 
FROM  THE  STANDPOINT  OF  A  SO- 
CIALIST. 

It  must  by  this  time  have  become  apparent  to 
all  thoughtful  people  that  an  adequate  remedy 
for  the  existing  hard  times,  which  in  spite  of  the 
clamors  of  prosperity  howlers,  is  felt  so  acutely 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  must  consist  of 
more  radical  and  far-reaching  measures  than  cor- 
poration-inspired financial  legislation,  or  the  in- 
evitable tariff  tinkering.  Vast  wealth  without 
merit  upon  the  one  hand,  the  complement  of  un- 
deserved poverty  upon  the  other,  is  the  con- 
dition which  confronts  us  to-day.  SociaHsm  will 
positively  produce  equality  of  opportunity,  not 
equality  of  wealth  or  of  any  other  thing.  The 
classes  now  in  possession  of  those  special  priv- 
ileges which  enable  them  to  appropriate  the 
wealth  produced  by  others  are  desperately  op- 
posed to  it,  knowing  that  it  would  give  to  the 
masses  the  product  of  their  toil,  while  the  sacred 
classes  would  be  obliged  to  toil  for  their  product. 
The  worker  in  an  extensive  factory  which  has 
cost  many  dollars  to  construct  and  ship  may  be- 
lieve that  a  large  portion  of  his  product  should 
go  to  the  man  who  has  risked  his  capital  in  build- 
ing and  equipping  it.  Under  our  present  indus- 
trial system  that  is  right  and  just.  Socialists  do 
not  blame  the  capitalist  for  requiring  a  profit  for 
the  use  and  risk  of  his  capital.  They  blame  the 
stupidity  of  a  people    who  continue    a    system 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  159 

which  makes  such  a  thing  necessary.  Under  the 
rational  system  private  capital  would  be  unnec- 
essary and  useless  to  the  public,  but  would  still 
benefit  its  possessor  without  injuring  or  exacting 
tribute  from  any  other  person, 

A  little  thought  will  convince  one  that  all 
wealth  IS  produced  by  labor  applied  to  natural 
resources,  and  that  capital  never  created  any 
wealth.  A  million  dollars  could  never  dig  a  post 
hole  or  plant  a  tree,  much  less  construct  and 
equip  a  transcontinental  railway  line  or  a  great 
manufacturing  plant.  Labor  can  and  has  done 
all  of  this — built  the  factory,  fashioned  the  raw 
material  from  nature's  inexhaustible  storehouse, 
made,  transported  and  adjusted  all  of  the  equip- 
ments of  the  great  factory.  As  labor,  applied  to 
the  resources  of  nature,  produced  or  erected  the 
factory  and  every  article  manufactured  there,  la- 
bor should  have  and  own  the  factory  and  its  en- 
tire product  in  just  and  equitable  proportion. 
Thus,  if  the  product  during  one  year  is  worth 
one  million  dollars,  one  man  who  did  one  mil- 
lionth part  of  the  labor  is  entitled  to  one  dollar, 
the  man  who  did  five  hundred  millionths  of  the 
labor  is  entitled  to  five  hundred  dollars,  etc.  Any 
system  which  takes  one  cent  of  that  from  them 
is  a  system  of  robbery,  and  every  cent  taken  from 
them  is  stolen — not  by  the  owner  of  the  factory, 
who  may  be  a  Christian,  and  a  Socialist,  for  that 
mattter,  but  by  the  system.  The  man  who  used 
and  risked  his  capital  would  be  robbed  if  he  did 
not  receive  his  profit.  True,  the  system  which 
permits  and  almost  compels  him  to  risk  his  prop- 


l60  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

erty  must  recompense  him  for  that  risk ;  but  only 
a  robber  system  would  compel  a  man  to  risk  the 
property  which  he  has,  in  order  to  acquire  more. 
Competition  robs  both  the  employer  and  his 
workmen.  He  and  they  are  each  and  all  the  vic- 
tims. 

Co-operation  is  to  competition  as  mutual  serv- 
ice is  to  envious  strife.  Socialism  is  co-opera- 
tion, mutual  assistance,  applied  in  a  scientific  and 
practical  manner  to  the  production  and  distribu- 
tion of  wealth.  Competition  is  the  strife,  con- 
tention, building  up  and  tearing  down  which  oc- 
curs in  the  construction  of  an  edifice,  where  each 
workman  builds  his  own  section  with  m.aterial 
which  he  tears  from  the  sections  which  his  fel- 
lows have  builded.  Consider  a  moment  if  this 
be  not  so.  The  professional  or  business  man 
can  secure  a  patronage  or  work  up  a  business 
only-  by  winning  it  away  from  some  one  else. 
And  so  long  as  there  are  more  men  than  jobs, 
even  a  poor  laborer  can  get  a  job,  a  chance  to 
earn  a  living  for  himself,  his  wife  and  babies,  only 
by  taking  it  from  another  unfortunate,  who  is 
thus  left  without  the  opportunity  to  provide  for 
himself  and  dependent  ones.  This  is  the  actual 
condition  at  present  existing.  It  is  industrial  can- 
nibalism, and  under  competition  positively  must 
get  worse  and  worse.  It  is  certain  that  popula- 
tion is  increasing  each  year,  and  each  year  the 
man-work  required  grows  less,  machine  work  re- 
placing it.  Men  becoming  more  numerous,  and 
jobs  less  numerous,  what  must  be  the  result? 
Tesla  says,  'The  work  of  the  world  will  some  day 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  l6l 

be  done  by  pressing  electric  buttons."     Do  you 
think  there  will  be  buttons  enough  to  go  around? 

Socialism  proposes  a  rational,  practical  and 
humane  remedy  for  all  the  ills  that  are  the  re- 
sult of  competition.  Careful  study  of  the  prob- 
lem surprises  the  enquirer  by  disclosing  how 
very  many  of  the  ills  of  the  body  politic  are  the 
result.  Sir  John  More,  Lord  Chancellor  of  Eng- 
land, many  years  ago  said  that  nine-tenths  of  the 
crimes  committed  are  crimes  against  property. 
That  class  of  crime  would  almost  cease  uyder 
a  Socialist  regime.  There  would  be  scarcely  any 
involuntary  poverty,  and  therefore  little  incentive 
to  that  kind  of  crime.  The  saving  of  wealth  un- 
der Socialism  would  be  enormous.  In  the  one 
case  each  separate  industry  would  be  system- 
ized  and  conducted  under  the  supervision  of 
experts.  In  the  other  case  all  production  is  the 
result  of  haphazard,  planless,  disconnected  effort. 
The  trusts  furnish  an  object  lesson  in  co-opera- 
tion. They  systematize  an  entire  industry.  The 
competition  of  the  little  rival  concerns  being 
eliminated,-  the  expense  of  numerous  traveling 
agents  and  of  advertising  is  at  once  saved.  The 
working  force — large  when  operating  in  diverse 
and  distant  places  with  inferior  equipments — is 
reduced  one-half  by  concentrated  production.  At 
the  present  time  this  saving  reverts  to  the  trust 
magnate.  In  the  future,  when  our  industries,  like 
our  military,  postal  and  school  systems,  are  so- 
cialized, it  will  accrue  to  the  people  as  a  whole. 

Are  officers,  teachers,  janitors,  etc.,  derelict  in 
their  duties  because   employed  by  the   govern- 


l62  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

ment?  Have  you  any  reason  to  believe  that 
artisans  would  h^  any  more  so?  Does  the  gov- 
ernment employed  mail  agent  render  a  service  in- 
ferior to  the  corporation  employed  express 
agent  ?  What  possible  argument  can  be  given  in 
favor  of  government  ownership  of  the  mail  serv- 
ice that  will  not  apply  with  equal  propriety  and 
force  to  the  express,  telegraph,  freight  and  pas- 
senger service  ? 

Under  Socialism  you  will  receive  just  the  quan- 
tity of  wealth  which  you  produce.  Under  capital- 
ism you  are  lucky  if  you  get  half  of  what  you  pro- 
duce. Therefore,  under  Socialism  you  would 
have  at  least  twice  the  incentive  to  earnest  ef- 
fort that  you  have  under  capitalism.  Under  cap- 
italism thousands  are  idle  and  thousands  are  in 
want.  Under  Socialism  those  men  would  be  put 
to  work  to  produce  things  wanted. 

Under  competition  there  are  in  a  town  a  hun- 
dred stores  and  a  thousand  clerks.  Under  So- 
cialism there  will  be  a  central  distributing  depot 
with  a  corps  of  one  hundred  efficient  men,  and 
the  remaining  nine  hundred  men  will  engage  in 
some  productive  occupation.  The  clerks  are  but 
a  drop  in  the  ocean.  Thousands  and  thousands 
are  not  engaged  in  useless  and  unproductive  la- 
bor. Under  Socialism  useless  labor  would  be 
unknown  and  unproductive  labor  almost  so,  and 
these  armies  of  slaves  to  Mammon  will  be  given 
honest  productive  employment. 

Production  in  its  present  volume,  which  if 
equitably  distributed  would  provide  a  degree  of 
comfort  unknown  to  half  our  people,  would  not 


POVERTY  AND  113  CURE,  163 

require  three  hours'  work  per  day  for  five  clays 
per  week  from  the  able-bodied  portion  of  our 
population.  One  result  would  be  several  holi- 
days each  week.  Both  are  practically  unknown 
to  half  our  people  to-day.  One-half  the  working 
or  workable  portion  of  the  population  could  pro- 
duce all  the  food  and  clothing-  required,  the  other 
half  could  be  put  to  work  building  fine  residences, 
making  musical  instruments  and  other  things 
that  are  appreciated  by  cultivated  minds,  and  un- 
der Socialism  every  capable  mind  would  have 
the  blessed  opportunity  of  culture.  Interest,  rent, 
profit  and  all  other  tributes  to  capital  will  be  com- 
pletely abolished  by  Socialism.  Private  capital 
will  not  be  recognized  or  used  in  the  production 
of  wealth,  therefore  there  will  be  no  necessity  or 
reason  for  paying  tribute  to  it.  Capital  is  ac- 
cumulated and  stored  up  by  wealth,  and  as  the 
people  collectively  create  and  accumulate  or  store 
up  wealth,  it  will  belong  to  them,  and  none  can 
claim  tribute  for  its  use.  The  whole  competitive 
or  capitalist  system  is  arranged  with  a  view  to 
taking  every  dollar  possible  from  labor  and  giv- 
ing it  to  the  capitalist.  The  reason  for  this  is 
that  the  capitalists  make  the  laws  which  regu- 
late this  system.  They  will  continue  to  do  so  un- 
til we  have  direct  legislation,  when  the  laws  will 
be  made  by  the  people  as  a  whole.  Direct  leg- 
islation means  the  socializing  of  the  legislative 
branch  of  our  government.  Even  the  taxes  nec- 
essary to  conduct  the  government,  instead  of  be- 
ing simply  and  inexpensively  paid  over,  are  col- 
lected in  the  form  of  tarift'  through  the  complex 


164  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

and  expensive  machinery  of  the  custom  house 
system,  that  place  and  pay  may  be  given  an  army 
of  non-producing  custom  officials.  According  to 
the  United  States  census  of  1890,  the  increase  of 
wealth  during  the  preceding  ten  years  amounted 
to  about  $11.55  for  each  day's  labor  done,  while 
the  average  wage  paid  to  the  skilled  and  other 
labor  was  about  $1.53  per  day.  Thus  the  worker 
got  $1.50  out  of  every  $11.50  he  produced,  while 
the  non-producers,  mostly  idlers,  got  the  other 
$10.  Do  not  get  the  idea  that  Socialism  means 
the  dividing  up  of  wealth.  It  means  a  dividing 
up  of  opportunities  only.  Private  property  would 
be  as  sacred  under  Socialism  as  it  is  to-day,  and 
would  run  no  risks,  the  nation  taking  the  place  of 
the  insurance  companies  in  guaranteeing  its  safe- 
ty. Under  competition  the  interests  of  the  buyer 
and  seher  are  antagonistic ;  under  Socialism  the 
interest  of  the  buyer  (the  people  individually) 
would  not  be  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  seller 
— the  people  collectively.  Every  labor-saving  de- 
vice would  then  be  a  blessing,  redeeming  to  a 
certain  extent  the  sons  of  men  from  toil. 

WAGE  SYSTEM  AND  SLAVERY. 

We  ought  to  know  that  our  struggle  for  indi- 
vidual freedom  is  not  a  fight  against  this  man,  or 
that,  or  the  other.  Our  quarrel  is  not  with  a 
Vanderbilt  nor  a  Rockefeller  nor  any  other  man 
who  may  be  named.  The  most  serious  obstacle 
to  our  progress  lies  in  the  notion  that  our  strug- 
gle is  against  men.  So  long  as  we  imagine  that 
the  capitalist  is  to  blame  for  the  conditions  which 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  165 

exist,  and  that  there  is  any  use  in  appealing  to 
him  to  right  our  wrongs,  so  long  shall  we  move 
round  and  round  in  a  circle  and  never  get  any- 
where. He  cannot  do  anything  for  us,  no  matter 
how  much  he  may  desire  to.  I  do  not  question 
the  value  of  labor  unions ;  they  are  one  of  the 
steps  toward  the  emancipation  of  labor.  But 
they  are  in  no  sense  an  end  in  themselves.  To 
think  of  them  as  a  means  of  securing  higher 
wages  is  to  miss  their  real  meaning.  That  man 
who  thinks  that  what  he  wants  is  higher  wages 
needs  enlightenment. 

Wages  are  just  what  every  laborer  the  world 
over  should  be  eager  to  abolish.  If  a  wage  sys- 
tem is  absolutely  synonymous  with  slavery,  not 
with  African  slavery,  but  with  a  far  more  hope- 
less and  hideous  sort,  the  maintenance  of  the 
wage  system  would  mean  the  defeat  of  civiliza- 
tion and  the  disappointment  of  humanity's  high- 
est and  holiest  hopes.  The  labor  union  is  a  sign 
board  pointing  to  something  better.  It  means 
that  the  interests  of  all  laborers  are  one,  and  it 
also  means  that  the  interests  of  employers  and 
emplovees  are  diametrically  hostile  to  each  other. 

There  is  no  harmony  between  the  two,  and  to 
pretend  there  is  is  to  trifle  with  the  facts.  The 
interests  of  capitalism  are  served  by  the  mak- 
ing of  profits.  Abolish  profits  and  the  system 
of  capitalism  immediately  goes  out  of  existence. 
But  the  interests  of  the  laborer  are  not  served  by 
profits,  because  he  does  not  receive  them.  They 
could  have  no  meaning  to  him.  All  he  can  pos- 
sibly receive  is  the  equivalent  of  the  profit  of  his 


1 66  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

labor,  that  which  shall  enable  him  to  buy  back 
all  that  he  has  produced.  And  that  is  not  profit. 
It  has  a  better  name,  which  does  not  occur  in 
the  vocabulary  of  capitalism — "justice." 

The  labor  union  also  means  that  the  interests 
of  all  laborers  are  absolutely  identical.  If  they 
are  ever  to  win  their  fight  they  must  stand  -to- 
gether as  a  class.  And  something  more  than 
this  is  necessary.  They  must  know  what  they 
want,  and  they  must  be  united  for  a  definite  pur- 
pose. The  trouble  thus  far  has  been  that  they 
have  either  concentrated  their  efforts  upon  a  pur- 
pose that  was  not  great  enough  or  else  have  been 
fighting  a  battle  that  ought  never  to  be  won.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  have  fought  for  an  advance 
in  wages,  or  against  a  reduction — in  either  case 
it  means  the  maintenance  of  the  wage  system, 
and  therefore  slavery.  Slaves  fighting  for  the 
defense  of  slavery.  On  the  other  side  we  have 
the  spectacle  of  the  trades  unions  contenting 
themselves  with  trying  to  limit  the  number  of  ap- 
prentices and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  That  is  a 
species  of  tyranny  to  which  the  American  people 
never  will  and  never  ought  to  submit.  I  deny 
the  right  of  any  trades  union  on  earth  to  say 
how  many  men  shall  work  in  a  certain  trade  or 
where  any  consumer  shall  buy  his  goods.  Let 
the  workingmen  of  this  country  learn  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment  that  unless  their  claims 
appeal  transparently  to  every  good  man's  sense 
of  justice,  their  cause  is  lost  to  begin  with.  No 
cause  that  has  not  in  it  the  claim  of  justice,  so 
that  all  can  see,  ever  ought  to  succeed,  nor  in  the 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  167 

long-  run  can  it.  But  apart  from  the  impertinent 
injustice  of  such  a  course,  it  is  not  and  cannot 
be  effective.  No  trade  union  nor  all  of  them  to- 
gether can  bring  all  the  laborers  into  their  mem- 
bership. Fewer  and  fewer  are  the  great  indus- 
tries that  can  be  crippled  by  the  action  of  trades 
unions.  That  weapon  is  losing  its  effectiveness. 
When  thousands  of  men  are  out  of  work,  it  is  too 
great  a  strain  on  human  nature  to  expect  them 
not  to  take  the  place  of  strikers.  It  is  every 
man's  inherent  right  and  duty  to  work  rather 
than  see  his  wife  and  children  starve.  All  the 
powers  of  society,  and  their  sympathies,  too,  will 
defend  a  man  in  that  right.  But  there  is  an  or- 
derly, natural,  legitimate  course  for  working- 
men  to  pursue.  And  that  course  is  indicated  in 
Socialism. 

The  Socialist  political  movement  has  come 
into  existence  purely  to  give  the  proletariat  an 
opportunity  to  gain  their  freedom.  Think,  work- 
ingnien,  what  that  movement  means.  It  is  noth- 
ing under  heaven  but  a  workingmen's  movement. 
It  is  devoted  absolutely  to  your  interests.  It  has 
no  other  interest  to  serve.  It  does  not  afford  an 
opportunity  for  the  fulfillment  of  personal  ambi- 
tions. Xo  man  can  ride  into  any  sort  of  su- 
premacy above  their  fellows  on  the  crest  of  the 
Socialist  political  tide.  It  is  not  a  movement  for 
the  offices  or  to  build  up  a  great  political  machine 
to  repeat  the  tyrannies  of  past  times.  It  means 
the  abolition  of  the  springs  of  political  corrup- 
tion. It  means  the  wiping  out  of  the  existing  po- 
litical parties.     It  proposes  to  abolish  the  wage 


l68  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

system  altogether.  It  proposes  to  make  a  re- 
turn to  slavery  impossible.  It  proposes  to  bring 
freedom  and  health  and  happiness  within  reach 
of  every  human  being  who  comes  into  the  world. 
It  proposes  to  make  it  impossible  for  any  man 
to  climb  to  any  sort  of  eminence  on  the  shoulders 
of  his  brother  men.  It  proposes  to  make  human 
interests  first,  with  the  knowledge  that  all  other 
interests  will  naturally  follow.  The  system  of 
capitalism,  under  which  we  are  living,  subjects 
the  masses  to  the  domination  of  a  comparatively 
few.  Economically  speaking,  we  are  all  consum- 
ers. We  must  all  have  food  and  clothing  and 
shelter  if  we  are  to  exist.  And  if  we  are  really 
to  live,  if  we  are  to  have  anything  worthy  to  be 
called  life — we  must  have  a  great  deal  more  than 
food  and  clothing  and  shelter.  We  must  have  good 
food,  clothing  which  gratifies  our  tastes,  and  shel- 
ter which  is  healthful  and  beautiful.  We  are 
more  than  a  pack  of  animals,  the  theory  of  cap- 
italism to  the  contrary  notwithstanding — we  are 
men  and  women.  We  have  something  more  than 
stomachs,  something  more  than  physical  nerves 
and  sensibilities.  We  have  capacities  for  count- 
less other  and  higher  things.  We  love  the  beau- 
tiful, or  we  would  if  we  had  the  chance.  We 
want  to  educate  ourselves.  We  want  to  see  and 
create  beautiful  things,  hear  and  compose  beauti- 
ful music  and  have  leisure  for  travel  and  recre- 
ation. I  hold  that  these  are  all  our  national 
rights.  And  one  man  is  just  as  much  entitled 
to  them  as  another.  No  man  or  woman  was  ever 
meant  to  be  the  slave  or  the  drudge  of  another, 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  1 69 

no  matter  how  high  the  price  paid  for  the  slavery 
or  drudgery.  To  attempt  to  maintain  any  such 
hideous  doctrine  is  to  nulhfy  all  morality  and 
make  one's  self  a  beast.  The  message  of  SociaJ- 
ism  to  the  vast  army  of  toilers  the  world  over  is 
the  only  sane,  hopeful,  cheering,  brotherly  mes- 
sage that  is  being  spoken  to-day.  It  has  an  in- 
sight into  the  present  and  a  vision  of  the  future 
such  as  no  prophet  of  all  the  past  has  had.  It 
declares  that  the  earth  belongs  to  all  the  people, 
that  every  human  being  who  comes  into  the 
world  bears  stamped  upon  his  nature  in  its  mani- 
fold capacities  the  certificate  of  his  rights. 

Socialism  rests  securely  upon  the  well-support- 
ed conviction  that  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness  are  a  universal  possibility.  Experi- 
ence has  only  painfully  proven  that  they  are  not 
a  possibility  under  the  regime  of  capitalism ;  in- 
deed, that  they  are  not  thinkable  under  that 
regime.  And  why  is  that  the  case?  Because 
capitalism  forbids  equality  of  opportunity.  It 
means  a  system,  of  injustice  from  base  to  dome. 
It  could  not  exist  a  day,  but  for  the  fact  that  all 
the  laws  are  made  in  its  interests  and  the  further 
fact  that  as  yet  the  masses  are  ignorant  of  the 
power  they  possess.  The  truth  is,  we  are  con- 
senting to  "live  under  a  class  tyranny.  The  cap- 
italist class  holds  in  its  hands  the  government, 
the  press,  the  church,  society,  everything.  Are 
its  members  morally  worse  than  other  men  ?  No. 
Do  they  aspire  to  be  tyrants  ?  Xot  all  of  them, 
and  none  of  them  at  the  beginning.  If  they  have 
become  possessed  of  the  nature  of  tyrants,  it  is 


170  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

the  inevitable  result  of  their  position.  So  long 
as  we  tolerate  such  a  class,  we  are  responsible 
for  them.  Whether  or  not  they  are  to  continue 
depends  entirely  upon  us.  We  can  abolish  that 
tyranny  forever.  We  can  wipe  out  that  economic 
class.  And  there  is  every  reason  why  we  should 
do  so.  The  world  has  suffered  from  ecclesiastical 
tyranny,  and  it  still  tolerates  it  to  some  extent. 
But  society  as  a  whole  has  abolished  that  tyran- 
ny in  this  country.  We  have  no  established 
church  or  religion.  No  priesthood  has  any  legal 
right  to  command  our  obedience  or  support.  Was 
this  ecclesiastical  tyranny  represented  by  im- 
moral men  ?  No.  But  the  system  was  and  is  the 
very  essence  of  immorality,  and  its  influence  has 
nowhere  been  other  than  bad.  We  have  suffered, 
too,  from  political  tyranny,  and  we  have  not  fully 
eradicated  it.  We  choose  our  servants,  not  our 
rulers — at  least  in  theory.  And  we  are  fast  find- 
ing that  our  representative  system  is  not  very  ef- 
fective for  the  abolition  of  political  tyranny.  But 
it  is  the  economic  tyranny  which  is  the  keystone 
in  the  arch  of  oppression.  That  is  the  tyranny 
to  which  vv^e  must  now  direct  our  attention.  We' 
shall  abolish  it  in  one  way,  and  that  is  the  way 
indicated  by  Socialism.  It  is  the  way  of  freedom 
and  happiness,  not  only  for  the  working  class, 
but  for  all  people.  Make  the  means  of  produc- 
tion and  distribution  the  property  of  all — as  they 
ought  to  be — and  economic  tyranny  ceases  to  be. 
Who  is  to  perform  this  task?  Can  it  be  en- 
trusted to  the  capitalists?  That  is  what  every 
laborer  believes  who  supports  by  his  vote  the 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  IJI 

Republican,  Democratic  or  any  other  capitalist 
party.  Have  we  a  right  to  expect  the  men  who 
profit  by  tne  existing  system  to  abolish  it? 
Never.  Who,  then,  can  be  expected  to  do  so? 
Surely  those  whose  interests  are  to  be  served 
most  immediately  and  beneficently  by  the  process 
— the  working  class.  How  are  they  to  effect  this 
needed  chano:e?    Political  and  economic  chancre 


't> 


3 


are  to  be  effected,  in  this  country,  peaceably  only 
at  the  ballot  box.  They  can  be  effected  there 
only  by  united  political  action.  United  political 
action  can  be  had  through  a  party.  The  only 
party  in  this  country  that  is  pledged  to  the  over- 
throw of  the  wage  system  and  the  establishment 
of  the  Co-operative  Conimonwealth  is  the  party 
that  stands  for  Socialism.  Thoughtful  men  trem- 
ble at  the  advance  of  Socialism.  At  times  it 
would  seem  that  some  members  of  the  possessing 
classes  are  by  no  means  certain  in  their  own 
minds  as  to  the  permanency  of  capitalist  rule, 
and  do  not  hesitate  to  say  so. 

But  ^Ir.  ^lark  Hanna  is  evidently  little  trou- 
bled by  these  gloomy  forebodings.  Here  is  his 
account,  taken  from  the  Times-Herald,  of  Chi- 
cago, December  ist,  1900,  of  how  he  reassured  a 
timorous  gentleman  who  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  a  struggle  with  Socialism  was  unavoidable 
in  the  near  future.  To  this  end  Mr.  Hanna  par- 
ticularly mentions  two  factors  which  he  con- 
siders stable  bulwarks  of  the  present  economic 
system : 

''When  I  was  in  New  York,"  says  Mr.  Hanna, 
"just  after  election,  a  thoughtful  man  said  to  me : 


172  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

'Well,  we've  saved  the  country  again,  but  I  trem- 
ble for  the  future.  Sooner  or  later  we  are  going 
to  have  a  tremendous  struggle  in  this  country  be- 
tween the  forces  of  conservatism  on  one  side  and 
Socialism  on  the  other,  and  I  am  afraid  Social- 
ism may  carry  the  day.'  'I  am  not  a  bit  afraid  of 
that,'  replied  Mr.  Hanna,  'and  I'll  tell  you  why. 
There  are  two  things  that  will  prevent  it.  One 
is  the  American  school  system ;  the  other  is  the 
Roman  Catholic  church.  That  great  church  is 
just  as  much  against  Socialism  as  the  protestant 
churches,  as  I  happen  to  know,  and  in  the  last 
campaign  appeals  to  class  hatred  were  frowned 
upon  by  the  highest  dignitaries  and  most  influ- 
ential men  of  the  Catholic  organizations.  As 
long  as  this  restraining  force  continues  to  oper- 
ate you  need  have  no  fear  of  Socialism  dominat- 
ing America.'  " 

If  the  party  to  whom  this  assurance  was  ad- 
dressed really  deserves  the  appellation  of 
"thoughtful,"  it  is  not  clear  how  he  is  to  derive 
much  comfort  from  Hanna's  view  of  the  situa- 
tion. It  may  be  conceded  that  in  the  control  of 
the  public  school  system  capitalism  possesses  a 
strong  bulwark,  but  the  press  and  the  pulpit  are 
no  less  valuable  for  the  same  purpose.  All  these 
have  been  and  still  are  equally  opposed  to  So- 
cialism, and  yet  the  latter  has,  in  spite  of  such 
opposition,  grown  to  the  extent  that  it  makes 
"thoughtful"  men  "tremble." 

If  Mr.  Hanna  could  designate  the  point  at 
which  Socialism  will  meet  with  obstacles  which 
cannot  be  overcome  and  explain  just  why,  his  as- 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  1 73 

surance  might  be  worth  something.  The  So- 
cialist recognizes  that  the  powers  which  Mr. 
Hanna  mentions,  as  well  as  other  existing  insti- 
tutions, have  been  and  still  are  being  used  for 
the  perpetuation  of  things  as  they  are,  but  he 
also  sees  that  in  spite  of  this  the  movement  has 
made  steady  and  rapid  progress,  and  has  no  rea- 
son for  supposing  that  the  obstacles  which  have 
been  powerless  to  stop  its  advance  in  the  past 
will  be  any  more  potent  to  do  so  in  the  future. 
In  claiming  the  Roman  Catholic  church  as  an 
ally  in  the  continued  plunder  of  the  working 
classes,  Mr.  Hanna  stands  upon  even  more 
doubtful  ground. 

There  are  a  few  institutions  still  in  existence 
which  antedate  capitalism,  and  of  these  by  far  the 
greatest  and  most  important  is  the  very  church 
which  Mr.  Hanna  relies  upon  as  an  auxiliary 
against  Socialism.  It  has  existed  through  va- 
rious economic  stages  of  human  society,  and  has 
been  enabled  to  do  so  by  a  knowledge  of  the  law 
by  which  all  organisms  alone  can  continue  to  ex- 
ist— the  law  of  adaptation  to  environment.  Its 
history  comprises  the  stages  of  slavery,  serfdom 
and  capitalism. 

In  the  transition  periods  between  these 
stages  it  has  survived  through  a  recogni- 
tion of  the  law  above  given.  As  it  did  not  disap- 
pear with  the  disappearance  of  the  two  former 
economic  stages,  is  there  any  good  reason  for 
believing  that  it  is  so  bound  up  with  capitalism 
that  the  destruction  of  the  latter  involves  it  also? 
If  plain  deductions  from  history  are  of  any  value, 


174  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

we  should  say  not.  The  slaveholding  class,  no 
doubt,  saw  in  the  passing  away  of  slavery  the 
destruction  of  the  church.  But  they  were  mis- 
taken. The  landowning  classes,  the  rulers  in 
the  feudal  ages,  we  know  as  a  historical  fact,  took 
the  same  view.  They  also  were  in  error.  Mr. 
Hanna  stands  in  the  same  position  to-day  as  the 
defender  of  capitalism.  Is  he  as  certainly  right  as 
the  others  were  certainly  wrong?  It  looks  as  if 
the  whole  matter  rests  upon  the  infallibility  of 
Hanna,  a  dogma  which  we  think  will  hardly  meet 
with  the  universal  acceptance,  either  from  capi- 
talists or  Socialists.  Turning  the  above  the  other 
way  around,  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  the  Ro- 
man Catholic  church  proposes  to  stay  on  earth, 
capitalism  or  no  capitalism,  and  judging  from  the 
past,  the  belief  is  well  warranted  that  it  knows 
how  to  do  so.  Like  every  other  institution,  it 
has  been  used  in  the  interests  of  the  ruling  class 
at  different  economic  periods,  but  it  was  quick  to 
see  the  inevitable  passing  away  of  these  different 
ruling  classes  and  adapt  itself  to  the  succeeding 
economic  stage.  And  that  is  the  reason  that  it 
exists  to-day  as  an  important  factor  in  human  so- 
ciety.  And  for  that  reason  also  it  will  drop  Mr. 
Hanna  and  his  class  just  as  soon  as  the  necessity 
of  doing  so  becomes  apparent. 

In  conclusion  we  would  call  the  attention  of 
our  numerous  Roman  Catholic  readers  to  the 
highly  honorable  occupation  which  this  brutal 
labor-skinner  maps  out  for  the  Christian  churches 
of  all  denominations,  their  own  included.  It  is 
essentially  the  same  view  which  his  class  invaria- 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  175 

bly  take  in  regard  to  the  religious  institutions  of 
the  day,  and  is  in  the  main  the  reason  why  they 
support  them.  The  chief  end  of  "reUgion,"  as 
they  see  it,  is  to  perpetuate  the  hell  upon  earth 
which  capitalism  has  brought  into  existence,  and 
the  type  of  human  being  of  which  Hanna  is  a 
fair  representative  and  this  avowal  upon  his  part 
is  merely  a  corroboration  of  the  oft-repeated  dec- 
larations of  Socialists  on  the  subject.  That  Han- 
na and  the  class  he  speaks  for  will  be  ultimately 
disappointed  in  their  expectations  we  have  little 
doubt,  but  it  is  none  the  less  valuable  to  know 
from  their  own  mouths  upon  what  they  depend 
for  continuing  class  rule,  wage  slavery,  and  the 
robbery  of  the  workers  in  the  future. 

The  ethical  ideals  of  Socialism  have  attracted 
to  it  generous  souls  and  have  enlisted  in  its  ranks 
its  best  adherents.  It  is  these  ethical  ideals  which 
have  inspired  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Socialistic 
army  with  fiery  zeal  and  religious  devotion.  It 
may  be  said,  indeed,  that  nothing  in  the  present 
day  is  so  likely  to  av/aken  the  conscience  of  the 
ordinary  man  or  woman,  or  to  increase  to  sense 
of  individual  responsibility,  as  a  thorough  course 
in  Socialism. 

The  study  of  Socialism  has  proved  the  turning 
point  in  thousands  of  lives,  and  converted  self- 
seeking  men  and  women  into  self-sacrificing  toil- 
ers for  the  masses.  The  impartial  observer  can 
scarcely  claim  that  the  Bible  produces  so  marked 
an  effect  upon  the  daily  habitual  life  of  the  av- 
erage man  and  woman,  who  profess  to  guide 
their  conduct  by  it,  as  Socialism  does  upon  its  ad- 


176  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

herents.  The  strength  of  SociaHsm  in  this  re- 
spect is  more  like  that  of  early  Christianity  as  de- 
scribed in  the  New  Testament. 

The  church  seems  utterly  unable  to  grasp  the 
mighty  social  problems  that  are  now  engaging 
the  attention  of  students  and  thinkers;  and  pul- 
piteers spend  their  time  inveighing  against  the 
saloon  evil,  the  gambling  evil,  the  social  evil,  etc., 
as  though  these  were  the  real  causes  of  sin- 
fulness, instead  of  being  merely  the  scales  and 
scabs  and  scars  that  tell  the  social  physician  of 
the  presence  of  economic  disease  that  cannot  be 
eradicated  by  palUative  treatment  or  a  dab  of 
court  plaster. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  WORKINGMAN. 

Egoism,  or  subjective  idealism,  is  in  no  phase 
of  action  displayed  with  more  emphasis  of  assur- 
ance and  individual  selfishness  than  by  the  self- 
assuhied  leaders  of  public  opinion  who  sermonize 
with  high-salaried  encouragement  through  the 
medium  of  the  average  daily  newspaper.  Being 
paid  for  their  work  as  professionals,  they  are  ex- 
pected to  handle  with  the  skill  of  artifice,  any 
subject  which  may  suggest  itself,  and  although 
absolutely  ignorant  as  to  either  cause  or  effect, 
stalk  brazenly  to  the  front  with  their  panaceas 
and  with  as  much  assurance  and  about  as  much 
to  the  purpose  as  that  of  a  fishmonger  who  would 
instruct  the  baker  in  the  preparation  of  a  loaf  of 
bread. 

This  is  more  forcibly  shown,  probably,  in  the 
editorial  space  writer's  general  dealing  with  the 


POVERTY  AXD  ITS  CURE  1 77 

intricacies  involved  in  a  solution  of  the  problems 
with  which  labor  has  to  contend.  It  may  be  that 
the  writer  of  such  a  solution  has  never  in  his  life 
done  a  day's  work  ;  he  may  have  been  reared  in 
idleness  and  luxury ';  may  never  have  been  called, 
in  youth,  to  even  bring  a  pail  of  water  or  carry 
up  an  armful  of  wood ;  have  been  waited  upon 
and  nurtured  with  hired  help,  until  private  school 
awaited  him  ;  have  passed  through  a  course  of 
select  tutoring  to  college  and  graduated  with 
crammed  and  overflowing  cranium  of  book- 
knowledge  galore,  and  can  word  an  essay  of  such 
magical  obscurity  as  to  puzzle  even  the  professors 
with  whom  he  is  about  to  separate  on  his  entry 
upon  a  literary  career. 

One  of  the  surprising  things  about  the  largest 
metropolitan  daily  newspapers  is  that  the  propri- 
etors, stockholders,  companies  or  syndicates  who 
produce  them  are  in  it  wholly  as  a  business  prop- 
osition. As  a  mass  they  are  totally  incapable  of 
inditing  a  paragraph  on  the  most  ordinary  topic, 
and  if  they  attempted  the  effort  they  would  fol- 
low the  instincts  of  the  general  illiterate  boor, 
and  bungle  the  sentences  into  an  array  of  high- 
sounding  words,  the  meaning  of  which  they 
themselves  did  not  understand.  Thus,  in  their 
dilemma,  they  turn  to  the  other  extreme ;  they 
call  in  and  employ  a  stafif  of  young  experts,  a 
species  of  spawn  freshly  emitted  from  the  hot- 
bed of  collegiate,  classic  lore,  the  highest  ambi- 
tion of  whose  efforts  are  to  mystify  and  dum- 
found  the  reader  with  words  and  phrases  which 
he  may  not  comprehend,  but  with  which  he  is 


178  CAPITAL  AND   LABOR 

profoundly  impressed  because  he  is  unable  to 
question  the  correctness  of  adaptation  in  their  ap- 
plication. And  these  are  of  the  class  who  set 
themselves  up  as  the  propounders  of  doctrinal 
dogma  for  the  regulation  of  society.  They  dis- 
sertate fluently  and  flatulently  upon  the  results 
of  cause  and  effect  and  pose  ambitiously  as  ora- 
cles of  profundity  in  answering  questions  upon 
the  important  affairs — political,  theological,  sci- 
entific, or  economical — as  the  framers  and  regu- " 
lators  of  public  opinion,  all  with  impudent  and 
defiant  assumption,  but  with  about  as  much  igno- 
rance of  the  subject  as  would  be  displayed  by  the 
unsophisticated  plowboy  in  navigating  a  vessel 
upon  the  high  seas.  And  this  brings  us  down  to 
the  subject  of  our  theme — "The  Church  and  the 
Workingmen." 

What  do  men  of  this  class  know  about  the 
wants,  necessities  and  anxieties  of  the  laboring 
man  ?  What  does  this  class  of  hothouse,  nursery 
productiveness  know  of  the  struggle  of  the  hardy 
beech  or  the  giant  oak  of  manhood  to  maintain 
his  standard  of  equilibrium  in  the  widespread  for- 
est of  humanity?  What  do  these  flattered  and 
pampered  household  pets  know  of  the  throes,  the 
anguish,  the  agony  of  the  world's  suffering, 
worthy  poor?  What  do  they  know  of  his  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  to  some  unseen  and 
unknown  power  for  the  liberties  he  enjoys  or  the 
ills  which  affect  him  ?  What  do  they  know  of  the 
reflections  which  deter  him  from  embracing  the 
scores  of  alleged  opportunities  afforded  him  for 
enlightenment  of  a  destiny  which  awaits  him  in 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  1 79 

a  long  sleep,  "after  life's  fitful  fever?"  And  yet 
there  is  scarcely  a  day  passes  but  we  find  in  one 
or  the  other  of  the  daily  papers  some  expression 
of  impudence,  prompted  by  what  seems  almost  a 
halo  of  ignorance,  in  censure  of  what  they  term 
the  dissolute  character  of  the  workingman — the 
wantonness  of  his  action — his  abandonment  to 
vicious  pleasures,  instead  of  his  attendance  reg- 
ularly at  church  and  his  devotion  to  church  wor- 
ship. \Miy  do  not  workingmen  go  to  church? 
Some  of  them — many  of  them — do.  In  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  will  power,  the  workingman  may 
also  exercise  his  choice  of  selection  with  the  same 
liberty  as  one  of  any  other  class.  Who  is  the  au- 
thority to  say  to  him,  "Nay"  ?  Who  has  endowed 
anyone  with  authority  to  direct  his  course  ?  Who 
shall  tell  him  what  church  he  shall  make  selection 
of?  And  if  he  should,  fortunately  or  unfortunate- 
ly, seek  his  choice,  may  he  not  find  the  doors 
closed  against  him ;  may  he  not  be  deprived  of 
the  privileges,  though  small,  he  desires  to  en- 
joy? Is  he  welcomed  joyously  into  the  gorgeous 
edifice  of  the  wealthy  nabobs,  with  cushioned 
pews  and  the  orchestral  accompaniments  of  holy 
worship  ?  If  he  is  allotted  a  place,  even  under  the 
very  droppings  of  the  sanctuary,  does  he  hear 
the  words  of  God  or  the  word  of  Mammon?  Is 
he  enlightened  and  refreshed  when  he  comes 
away,  or  is  he  impressed  more  strongly  with  the 
insignificance  of  his  person  and  the  vanity  of  his 
struggle  for  a  higher  sphere? 

He  may  not  in  all  of  the  churches  find  him- 
self  surrounded   by   the   same   evidences   of   af- 


l80  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

flueiice  and  worldly  wealth,  but  he  will  most  like- 
ly find,  in  most  of  them,  the  same  sham  and  show 
of  dress  and  finery  which  serves  to  clothe  a 
pseudo-respectability.  He  will  hear  dissertations 
upon  the  Word  from  the  same  book  in  as  many 
varieties  of  form  and  elucidation  as  he  will  find 
churches  in  which  to  give  them  ear ;  and  if  he  is 
not  firmly  fixed  in  his  belief  on  the  doctrinal  lines, 
he  will  retire  in  a  condition  of  mind  more  mysti- 
fied than  when  he  entered.  The  question  of  the 
workingman  going  to  church  is  a  matter  of  no 
consequence  even  to  those  who  make  such  loud 
professions  of  church  attendance  and  fealty.  How 
many  who  do  go  are  earnest  and  honest  in  their 
efifort  to  put  in  an  appearance ;  in  their  pretense 
to  superior  knowledge  ;  to  proclaim  themselves  as 
peculiarly  versed  in  doctrinal  uprightness  ?  That 
they  differ  in  their  method  and  mode  of  proced- 
ure is  not  more  strange  than  that  the  average 
workingman  hesitates  and  even  stumbles  upon 
what  others  conceive  to  be  his  duties  toward  the 
church. 

Skepticism  is  the  result  of  inteUigence.  Slavery 
to  a  single  line  of  thought,  and  the  absolute  aban- 
donment of  all  others,  frames  the  mind  into  big- 
otry and  superstition.  Workingmen  as  a  class 
are  naturally  as  intelligent  as  any  other  class. 
They  are  made  like  other  men.  They  have  or- 
gans, dimensions,  affections,  and  passions  as  oth- 
er men  have.  They  are  fed  with  the  same  food, 
hurt  with  the  same  weapons,  subject  to  the  same 
diseases,  healed  by  the  same  means,  warmed  and 
cooled  by  the  same  summer  and  winter  as  other 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  l8l 

men.  If  in  addition  to  this  they  are  governed  by 
their  behef  of  the  existence  of  a  Deity ;  that  he 
made  the  world,  and  governs  it  by  his  provi- 
dence ;  that  the  most  acceptable  service  of  God 
was  doing  good  to  man  ;  that  all  human  souls  are 
immortal,  and  that  crime  will  be  punished  and 
virtue  rewarded,  either  here  or  hereafter,  if  indi- 
vidually they  stand  before  the  world  with  a 
knowledge  of  their  individual  responsibility,  who 
is  there  who  is  especially  delegated  to  direct  them 
what  particular  line  of  faith  they  shall  follow,  by 
which  to  attain  the  best  ends  of  their  destiny? 
It  is  not  necessary  to  enumerate  the  hundreds 
of  denominational  heal-alls  who  invite  a  test  of 
their  infallibility  ;  the  tendency  of  whose  efforts 
are  more  of  political  significance  than  of  spiritual 
welfare  or  beneficence.  The  man  who  struggles 
in  a  ceaseless  labor  day  after  day  to  maintain  an 
existence,  meager  at  best,  for  himself  and  his  de- 
pendents, is  not  facing  a  theory,  but  a  condition. 
He  is  filling  the  destiny  of  a  fate,  not  to  be  per- 
suaded or  moved  by  entreaty  or  prayer.  He  is 
living  in  the  present,  and  even  time  is  inexorable. 
If  the  workingman  does  not  go  to  church  it  is  not 
because  he  is  worse  than  other  men.  He  will 
strive  to  go  if  the  opportunity  is  favorable,  and  he 
is  satisfied  that  he  owes  such  devotion  as  a  duty. 
But  he  is  not  compelled  to  go.  He  can  be  just 
as  free  in  his  choice  as  the  most  profound  dev- 
otees. It  is  not  fair  to  question  the  choice  of 
anyone  in  his  particular  doctrinal  belief.  Infant 
or  early  teaching  is  the  foundation  of  almost 
every  belief,  and  holds  its  intiuence  throughout 


1 82  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

an  entire  life.     Subsequent  surroundings  and  in- 
fluences that  accompany  growth  into  manhood 
may  modify  or  even  change  his  Hne  of  beUef,  and 
he  may  seek,  as  is  his  right  and  the  right  of  any 
free  agent,  to  exercise  it  in  form  and  ceremony 
best  suited  to  bring  happiness  and  contentment 
he  desires.    There  is  no  more  reason  for  the  cen- 
sure placed  upon  the  workingman  for  not  going 
to  church  than  there  would  be  in  placing  cen- 
sure upon  any  other  man  for  his  attendance  upon 
any  particular  church  in  preference  to  another. 
Church  attendance  and  church  worship  should 
not  be  followed  as  a  matter  of  commercialism.   It 
should  not  be  brought  down  to  the  level  of  trade 
or  trafBc  in  souls.     If  it  is  not  here  asserted  it 
may  yet  be  that  the  active  enmity,  violent  hatred, 
rancor  and  even  malignity  exhibited  by  many  re- 
ligious denominations  toward  others  of  like  priv- 
ileges and  rights  with  themselves,  is  the  most 
destructive  stumbling  block  to  the  doubting,  hes- 
itating, wayfaring  man  in  his  observation  and  in- 
spection of  the  proper  course  to  pursue  in  search 
of  means  to  bring  him  the  consoling  influences 
for  a  better  life,  assured  peace  and  quiet,  and  the 
consequent  happiness  and  contentment  of  him- 
self and  those  dependent  upon  him.     It  is  not 
here   urged   or   advised   that    the    workingman 
should  not  go  to  church.    All  that  is  asked  is  that 
he  be  granted  the  exercise  of  his  will  to  do  so  or 
not  with  the  same  liberty  that  any  other  man  may 
exercise  in  going  to  any  church  of  his  own  pe- 
culiar selection.    It  is  possible  that  there  are  just 
as  good  men  outside  of  orthodoxy  as  of  those 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  183 

professionally  clothed  in  its  man-made  habila- 
ments. 

If  the  cliv^ne  right  theory  could  find  no  other 
contention  of  its  authority  than  is  developed 
through  reason  and  intelligence,  the  assumption 
of  its  claimants,  the  violence  of  its  methods,  the 
tyranny  of  its  power,  the  hcartlessness  of  its  ex- 
actions, the  hypocrisy  of  its  teachings,  and  the 
futility  of  its  promises  in  all  ages  of  the  world 
places  indelibly  the  brand  of  fraud  upon  its  pre- 
tensions. 

Should  the  workingman  go  to  church?  Yes, 
if  he  himself  wills  it,  and  to  any  church  he  may 
select  if  the  doors  are  open  to  him. 

Socialists  believe  that  the  v^orld  was  made  for 
the  whole  human  family  and  not  for  a  few.  They 
therefore  advocate  "equal  opportunities  for  all, 
special  privileges  to  none."  For  w^ar  they  would 
substitute  arbitration ;  for  competition,  co-opera- 
tion ;  for  selfishness,  generosity ;  for  charity,  jus- 
tice ;  for  monarchy,  democracy ;  for  slavery,  lib- 
erty; for  cruelty,  kindness;  for  hate,  love  and 
sympathy  for  a  fellow  man. 

RELIGION  AND  CHURCHES. 

Socialism  is  a  politico-economic  theory,  and  as 
such  has  little  to  do  with  theological  doctrines. 
Socialism  deals  with  the  problems  of  sustenance 
of  life  on  earth.  It  has  for  its  ideal  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  system  of  industry  which  shall  in- 
sure to  every  member  of  society  the  greatest 
amount  of  the  necessities  of  life  and  the  refine- 
ments of  civilization ;  hence  it  is  not  concerned 


184  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

with  the  reHgious  beHefs  of  any  individual.  In- 
ternational Socialism  has  often  declared  that  the 
worship  of  a  deity  is  none  of  its  business.  With 
churches,  however,  there  is  some  difference.  The 
militant  Christian  church  is  an  institution  which, 
besides  a  theological  creed,  frequently  adopts  po- 
sitions on  social  and  economic  questions.  These 
positions  are,  unfortunately  for  the  church,  very 
often  wrong.  The  leading  members  of  the  insti- 
tution are  ordinarily  rich  men  (capitalists)  and 
their  ideas  on  social  problems  are  too  often  ac- 
cepted by  the  preachers  as  gospel  truth.  The  re- 
sult is  that  when  the  church  expresses  itself  on 
political  or  social  questions,  only  too  frequently 
its  opinions  are  conservative  and  capitalistic. 

When  the  churches  take  such  stands,  we,  as 
Socialists,  must  rebuke  them.  The  gentlemen  of 
the  cloth  may  be  infallible,  despite  their  differ- 
ences, when  it  comes  to  the  interpretation  of  sa- 
cred writings;  but  when  they  trench  upon  the 
ground  of  social  science  they  must  expect  the 
unsparing  criticism  of  the  advocates  of  the  truth. 
As  it  is  with  their  economic  teachings,  so  it  is 
with  their  actions  and  practices.  When  by  for- 
eign missions  they  seek  to  open  the  way  for  cap- 
italist misery  in  foreign  lands;  when  they  allow 
themselves  to  be  used  as  tools  by  the  robber  class 
for  the  enslavement  and  subjugation  of  inno- 
cent peoples,  as  in  Hawaii,  Samoa  and  elsewhere ; 
when,  moreover,  they  have  the  audacity  to  clamor 
loudly  for  revenge  because  some  of  their  emis- 
saries are  punished  for  entirely  unwarranted  in- 
terference with  the  eternal  affairs  of  other  coun- 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  185 

tries,  we  have  no  choice  but  to  condemn  the  folly, 
or  knavery,  of  these  people. 

Socialism  does  not  attack  religion,  but  when 
any  religious  institution  allies  itself  with  the  en- 
emies of  the  class,  Socialists  cannot  ignore  their 
action.  We  have  abundant  proof  of  the  hos- 
tility of  many  pulpits.  In  Germany,  Belgium  and 
France  the  clericals  are  our  strongest  and  most 
unscrupulous  foes.  This  is  because  they  have 
chosen  to  be  such,  not  because  we  expelled  them 
from  our  midst.  We  stand  as  the  representatives 
of  the  workers  of  the  world,  battling-  in  their  be- 
half. We  shall  conduct  our  campaign  without 
fear  or  favor.  Those  who  will  ally  themselves 
with  us  for  our  cause  we  welcome  gladly.  Jew 
or  Gentile,  Catholic  or  Protestant,  Idolator  or 
Atheist,  we  have  no  prejudice.  Neither  race  nor 
creed  do  we  bar  from  our  comradeship.  Our 
comrades  come  from  every  country  of  the  civ- 
ilzed  earth ;  our  members  may  freely  hold  any 
belief.  But  whenever  any  institution  for  the  pro- 
motion of  any  belief  lends  aid  and  comfort  to 
our  enemy,  the  capitalist  class,  we  shall  boldly 
criticise  its  attitude  and  attack  its  position. 

Let  me  premise  that  in  all  I  here  say  I  am  not 
finding  fault  with  those  people  in  the  churches 
who  are  honestly  doing  what  they  can  to  help 
benefit  others,  whether  by  money,  visitation  or 
good  will.  These  remarks  are  only  for  those  pro- 
fessing Christians,  whose  Christianity  goes  no 
further  than  their  little  round  of  church  duties 
which  produce  no  fruit  for  the  good  of  others. 
Do  you  wonder  if  in  the  face  of  all  these  facts 


1 86  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

that  unbelievers,  often  contend  that  much  of  our 
so-called  Christianity  is  sheer,  pure,  unadulter- 
ated humbug? 

George  MacDonald  once  said  that  the  best  way 
to  show  our  love  for  God  our  Father  is  to  be 
kind  to  some  of  his  other  children,  and  yet  too 
many  of  us  who  are  named  by  the  name  of  Christ 
— the  man  of  sorrows,  acquainted  with  grief,  who 
went  about  doing  good,  seeking  the  lost,  heal- 
ing the  sick,  relieving  the  distressed  and  comfort- 
ing the  sorrowing — we,  his  professed  followers, 
shun  hearing  of  the  misery  and  sorrow  of  our 
brethren  and  sisters.  "Oh,  don't  tell  me  such 
terrible  things;  I  don't  want  to  hear  them!  I 
can't  sleep  if  you  tell  me  of  such  horrors!  I 
dream  about  them,  and  in  the  morning  I  have 
such  a  terrible  headache!"  These  are  some  of 
the  responses  that  are  called  forth  by  our  efforts 
to  arouse  Christian  men  and  women  to  their 
duty.  Yet,  dear  friend,  what  are  your  one  or  two 
headaches  or  heartaches  in  the  midst  of  your 
luxury  and  plenty  for  body  and  mind,  compared 
with  the  constant  headaches  and  heartaches  of 
these  poor,  neglected  ones,  who  are  the  Lord's 
own  children  as  much  as  you  are.  They  may  be 
honoring  and  glorifying  God  in  their  distress  far 
more  than  you  in  your  luxury.  Can  you  give 
me  any  reason  from  the  Bible,  or  anywhere  else, 
why  you  should  be  so  favored  and  those  so  deso- 
late and  forlorn  ?  Are  you  indeed  so  much  better 
than  they  ?  Is  it  a  proof  of  God's  especial  regard 
that  you  are  thus  circumstanced?  I  am  free  not 
only  to  confess  my  doubt  that  it  is  so,  but  often- 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  1 87 

times  my  positive  assurance  that  it  is  not  so ; 
for  now,  as  in  David's  time,  it  is  true  that  the 
wicked  are  often  seen  in  great  power  and  spread- 
ing themselves  as  the  green  bay  tree.  Oh,  men 
and  women  of  the  Christian  church !  I  am  sick 
of  such  shoddy  Christianity !  I  am  disgusted 
with  a  Christianity  that  knows  not  God  and  his 
methods !  Shame  on  those  of  you  who  do  not 
his  will  in  this  regard ;  you  are  of  the  race  of 
Scribes  and  Pharisees,  not  one  whit  better,  who 
lick  the  outside  of  the  platter,  and  who  within 
are  whited  sepulchers. 

THE   NEW   RELIGION. 

"Socialism  needs  no  new  religion  imposed  upon 
it  from  without,  and  the  less  it  has  of  such,  the 
safer  will  be  its  course.  But  it  does  need  to  be 
shot  through  with  that  spiritual  passion,  without 
which,  Hegel  says,  no  great  movement  ever  pre- 
vailed. And  Socialism  has  within  itself  the  germs 
of  that  passion,  it  has  a  seed  of  a  new  religion. 
Socialism  has  power  to  become  its  own  religion. 
Essentially  Socialism  is  a  religion — the  religion 
of  life  and  brotherhood  for  which  the  world  has 
long  waited.  It  has  in  it  that  purpose  which  can 
command  the  idealistic  motive  that  lies  deep  in 
even  the  most  matter-of-fact  men.  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  young  men  and  young  women  are 
crying  out  for  some  cause  in  which  they  can  in- 
vest their  lives  ;  some  cause  that  shall  afford  them 
altars  of  exalted  and  self-denying  service.  They 
see  the  gods  and  their  temples  burning  to  ashes 
and  they  ask  for  something  that  shall  take  the 


1 88  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR  1 

place  of  these  in  supplying  the  most  elemental  ' 
need  of  the  human  soul.  Socialism  can  supply  ' 
that  need.  It  comes  to  the  common  life  as  the  \ 
religion  of  free  and  happy  earth ;  the  religion  of  \ 
comradeship  and  mutual  hope  and  brotherhood.  ] 

"Let  Socialists  be  true  to  the  deeper  meanings  ■■ 
of  the  class  struggle,  and  they  may  gather  into 
the  service  of  Socialism  the  great  fund  of  re-  \ 
ligious  purpose  and  passion  which  is  now  heart-  j 
sick,  unattached  and  wasted.  And  this  religious  \ 
passion,  quicker  than  anything  else,  will  awaken  ] 
the  working  class  to  the  consciousness  of  its  i 
worth  and  destiny,  and  of  the  struggle  and  sol-  j 
idarity  by  which  the  emancipation  of  life  and  \ 
labor  come.  Let  me  impress  upon  your  mind  i 
that  only  a  factional  and  divided  Socialist  move-  ] 
ment  can  defeat  Socialism.  There  is  no  power  j 
in  Capitalism,  nor  in  the  universe,  that  can  pre-  ; 
vent  the  consummation  of  a  united  and  harmo-  ■ 
nious  Socialist  movement  in  the  Co-operative  ■ 
Commonwealth.  i 

"There  has  never  come  to  the  world  of  labor  nor  j 
to  the  international  Socialist  movement,  nor  to  \ 
the  long  struggle  of  man  for  liberty,  an  oppor-  I 
tunity  like  unto  that  which  the  American  political  i 
and  religious  situation  now  presents.  The  Amer-  ' 
ican  people,  led  by  the  politicians  to  continued  j 
and  economic  slaughter,  are  finding  themselves  \ 
in  the  economic  condition  of  the  proletaire  whose  ■ 
soul  and  body  have  been  so  long  the  grist  of  \ 
the  capitalist  mill  that  he  has  no  opportunity  to  ' 
become  class  conscious,  or  aspire  to  better  things.  ■ 
Vast  intellectual  and  religious  resources  are  of-  ; 


POVERTY  AND  ITS  CURE  189 

fering  themselves  to  the  Sociahst  cause.  Now  is 
the  opportunity  of  the  Sociahst  to  gather  the  dis- 
appointed American  democracy,  and  the  freely 
offered  brain  and  heart  of  the  younger  men  and 
women  of  the  educated  class,  into  the  service  of 
inspiring  and  disciplined  labor  for  the  coming 
struggle  and  the  coming  liberty.  That  oppor- 
tunity means  a  responsibility  that  shall  match  it. 
For  opportunity  never  calls  a  people  or  a  class 
being  to  responsibility,  without  them  being  po- 
tentially able  to  respond."— George  D.  Herron. 


A  QUESTION  FOR  THE  PROHIBITION-    j 
ISTS  TO  CONSIDER.  I 

There  is  no  neater  tribute  to  the  power  of 
profit  than  the  question  asked  by  a  leading  tern-  i 
perance  paper,  'If  a  boss  distiller,  brewer  or  a  | 
saloon  keeper  had  been  president  of  the  United  1 
States,  what  more  could  he  do  than  has  been  j 
done  by  Mr.  McKinley  for  the  liquor  traffic  in  i 
the  Philippines?"  In  1897,  $663  worth  of  liquor  , 
was  sent  to  the  Philippipnes.  In  1899,  $106,000  J 
was  sent  there.  The  number  of  saloons  has  in-  I 
creased  from  an  insignificant  number  to  over  300.  4 
Of  course  all  the  dear  temperance  people  sup-  | 
ported  McKinley,  because  he  was  a  Christian  ^^ 
gentleman.  The  temperance  people  do  not  know- 
that  the  profit  system  operated  McKinley  and  the 
United  States  (including  ''dependencies"),  and 
that  so  long  as  profit  dictates  men's  actions,  in- 
toxicating liquors  will  fill  a  large  part  of  the  time  | 
and  stomachs  of  men.  Talking  about  saloons,  I  | 
will  drift  a  little  into  the  details  of  the  vice  and  ] 
havoc  that  is  made  by  this  evil.  Not  that  I  am  ^ 
opposed  to  the  traffic.  I  am  a  firm  believer  that  ] 
it  is  a  necessity  under  this  system  of  penury  and  J 
hardships.  Many  of  the  saloons  are  owned  by  ( 
the  large  brewers,  whose  power  and  influence  1 
render  it  an  easy  thing  to  secure  a  license  for  any  \ 
abandoned  scoundrel  who  will  be  a  willing  tool  i 
in  their  hands.  Thus  these  brewer-owned  saloons  ^ 
become  the  hatching  places  for  all  kinds  of  foul  ^ 
conspiracies,  political  and  otherwise,  from  eggs  { 


A  QUESTION   FOR  THE  PROHIBITIONISTS      IQI 

sown  by  men  in  power — the  brewers — who  own 
the  keepers,  body,  mind  and  soul.  And  these 
brewers  often  pose  as  pubhc  benefactors.  They 
point  with  pride  to  their  p:reat  charities  and  the 
Hke,  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  to  the  clear-headed 
they  stand  as  worse  than  highway  robbers  posing 
in  the  guise  of  philanthropists.  With  both  hands 
364  days  of  the  year  in  the  workingman's  pocket, 
they  rob  and  pillage  their  poor  victims,  who  are 
so  blinded  by  their  devilish  arts  as  to  be  willing 
to  be  thus  plundered — not  only,  alas,  of  money, 
but  of  health,  position,  character  and  honor. 
Then  on  the  365th  day  they  buy  what  little  brains 
he  has  with  foul  putrified  slop  that  is  not  fit  for 
a  hog,  to  make  him  vote  for  the  lackeys.  The 
man  who  will  sell  his  vote  for  money  is  fit  only 
for  the  society  of  convicts,  and  some  inmates  of 
the  penitentiaries  are  too  good  to  be  associated 
with  them.  The  man  who  sells  his  vote  sells  his 
soul  just  as  surely  as  if  he  had  signed  a  contract 
with  old  Nick  himself.  The  man  who  deliberate- 
ly purchases  a  vote  is  in  exactly  the  same  cate- 
gory. There  is  not  the  shadow  of  excuse  or  palli- 
ation for  either.  One  is  as  bad  as  the  other,  and 
both  ought  to  be  in  the  penitentiary,  where  the 
law  says  they  shall  be,  if  found  out. 

The  thing  we  call  politics,  which  so  many  good 
but  misguided  people  only  regard  with  contempt 
and  speak  of  with  a  sneer,  has  really  to  do  with 
the  most  sacred  relations  of  life,  and  the  man  who 
piously  says  that  he  is  above  having  anything 
to  do  with  politics  simply  says  that  he  is  above 
having  anything  to  do  with  adjusting  the  rela- 


192  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

tions  between  his  fellow  men,  and  to  my  mind 
there  is  no  more  dangerous  citizen  or  dangerous 
class  of  citizens  to-day  than  the  Pharisees  of 
business  and  religion,  who,  counting  themselves 
holier  than  other  men,  are  so  absorbed  either  in 
the  business  of  money-getting  or  self-adoration 
that  they  frankly  say  that  they  have  no  time 
to  meddle  with  politics.  If  it  is  true  that  politics 
are  dirty,  and  good  and  pious  men  are  too  good 
and  too  busy  to  lend  a  hand  in  the  work  of  clean- 
ing up  the  political  situation,  what  hope  is  there 
for  our  political  institutions?  I  am  one  who  be- 
lieves that  there  is  no  hope  for  political  peace 
except  as  it  is  reached  through  political  and  so- 
cial justice.  I  do  not  believe  that  social  and  po- 
litical problems  are  to  be  fought  out ;  they  are  to 
be  thought  out. 


SLAVERY. 

Liberty  and  poverty  are  incompatible,  and  if 
the  poverty  is  extreme,  liberty  is  impossible.  The 
unrest  which  we  call  labor  trouble  is  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  the  endeavor  to  gain  the  liber- 
ty which  the  working  classes  think  they  see  the 
employing  classes  possessed  of. 

The  negro  slaves  were  taken  care  of,  and  many 
of  them  were  more  comfortable  in  their  servitude 
than  they  are  in  their  freedom.  But  the  white 
slave  is  paid  starvation  wages  by  masters  who 
have  made  fortunes  out  of  the  tarifif  in  a  single 
year,  and  he  is  robbed  of  thirty-seven  per  cent 
of  what  he  gets ;  when  he  asks  for  more  he  is 
turned  out  of  house  and  home  and  his  place  is 
filled  by  imported  laborers.  Yet  the  system  is 
said  to  be  a  good  one  for  the  workingman.  And 
I  say  to  you  now,  with  no  chance  of  challenge, 
that  there  is  in  the  United  States  to-day  a  worse 
slavery,  a  more  cruel  bondage,  than  that  with 
which  Spain  ever  cursed  Cuba  in  the  days  of  her 
pride  and  power.  Would  you  have  the  evidence  ? 
Go  to  the  workshop  and  the  mines,  where  the 
toilers  drudge  through  the  day  for  a  pauper's 
pittance !  Go  to  their  hopeless  homes,  where 
want  and  woe  have  been  before,  where  weak 
w^omen  shiver  in  fireless  rooms  and  children  cry 
for  a  paltry  crust !  Go  to  our  great  factories, 
where  delicate  girls  give  their  lives  from  day  to 
day  to  feed  the  monster  of  greed !  Go  find  the 
children  slaving  in  the  shop  instead  of  studying 


194  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

at  school !  And  for  further  evidence  look  in  at 
the  prison  and  poorhouse,  the  hospital  or  the 
morgue. 

The  following  item  appeared  in  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  June  22d,  1900: 

'The  life  of  a  baby  boy  was  put  up  for  barter 
in  New  York  city  to-day.  It  was  not  an  auction 
sale,  but  the  starving  mother  gave  to  the  public 
a  chance  to  bid  for  the  life  of  her  child.  The 
sale  was  made,  and  to-day  $100.00  was  paid  for  a 
human  being.  The  bill  of  sale  was  made  out. 
It  was  witnessed  by  a  lawyer  and  two  others  and 
the  seal  of  a  notary  public  was  attached.  Then 
the  document  was  carried  to  the  register's  office 
and  there  formally  filed.  The  matter  was  submit- 
ted to  Register  Fromme.  He  said :  'The  sale  of 
human  life  is  a  violation  of  the  constitution.  I 
suppose  this  document,  however,  will  have  to  be 
accepted  for  filing.'  The  mother  of  the  child  was 
Pauline  Mathis.  Her  brother  and  father  were  out 
of  work  and  the  family  almost  starving,  so  the 
mother  decided  to  dispose  of  her  child.  Mrs. 
Ann  Gross,  wife  of  a  butcher,  has  no  children. 
She  heard  of  the  Mathis  family's  destitution  and 
offered  $100.00  for  the  baby.  It  was  accepted,  al- 
though the  mother  was  heartbroken." 

No  more  horrible  and  monstrous  tale  could  be 
told  that  would  disclose  the  heartlessness  and 
vileness  of  the  present  system  under  which  we  are 
living  than  the  above  article.  Even  the  barbaric 
system  under  which  savages  live  never  leads  to 
such  horrible  outcomes.  No  savage  was  ever 
compelled,  through  a  system  that  leads  to  starva- 


SLAVERY  195 

tion,  to  sell  her  offspring.  There  are  no  words 
to  express  the  horror  of  it.  It  shows  that  the 
system  under  which  we  live  is  fiendish.  And  yet 
with  all  the  horrible  deeds  to  which  our  system 
leads  we  hear  people  shouting-  words  to  this  ef- 
fect:  "Great  is  our  civilization;  great  is  our  re- 
public ;  great  is  our  President ;  great  are  our  cap- 
italists ;  long  live  the  republic  and  the  capitalist 
system  !"  "Away  with  Socialists  who  would  ruin 
our  present  civilization,  our  glorious  country  and 
our  flag!" 


AN  INVITATION. 


KANSAS    EDITOR    TELLS    AGUINALDO    WHAT    GOOD 

THINGS  HE  MISSES  BY  KEEPING  AWAY 

FROM   US. 

Agui,  you  do  not  know  what  a  good  thing  you 
are  missing  by  not  wanting  to  become  a  citizen 
of  this  grand  country  of  ours.    There  is  nothing 
else  Hke  it  under  the  sun.    You  ought  to  send  a 
delegation  over  here  to  see  us — this  land  of  the 
free,  this  land  of  churches  and  470,000  licensed 
saloons,  Bibles,  forts,  guns,  the  millionaires  and 
paupers,  theologians  and  thieves,  libertines  and 
liars,  Christians  and  chain  gangs,  politicians  and 
poverty,   schools  and  prisons,   scalawags,  trusts 
and  tramps,  virtue  and  vice.     A  land  where  we 
make  bologna  of  dogs  and  canned  beef  of  sick 
cows  and  old  mules  and  horses ;  and  corpses  of 
people  who  eat  it ;  where  we  put  men  in  jail  for 
not  having  the  means  of  support,  and  on  the  rock 
pile  if  he  has  no  job ;  where  we  have  a  congress 
of  400  men  to  make  laws,  and  a  supreme  court 
of  nine  men  to  set    them    aside;    where    good 
whisky  makes  bad  men,  and  bad  men  make  good 
whisky ;  where  newspapers  are  paid  for  suppress- 
ing the  truth,  and  made  rich  for  telling  a  lie; 
where  professors  draw  their  salaries  and  convic- 
tions from  the  same  source ;  where  preachers  are 
paid  from  $1,000  to  $25,000  a  year  to  dodge  Satan 
and  tickle  the  ears  of  the  wealthy.    Where  busi- 
ness consists  in  getting  property  in  any  way  that 


AN    INVITATION  1 97 

will  not  land  you  in  the  penitentiary ;  where  trusts 
hold  you  up  and  poverty  holds  you  down  ;  where 
men  vote  for  what  they  do  not  want  for  fear 
they  will  get  what  they  want  by  voting  for  it ; 
where  women  wear  false  hair  and  men  dock  their 
horses'  t.ails ;  where  men  vote  for  a  thing  one  day 
and  swear  about  it  the  other  364  days  of  the 
year;  where  we  have  prayers  on  the  floor  of  the 
national  capitol  and  whisky  in  the  basement ; 
where  we  spend  $5,000  to  bury  a  congressman 
and  $10.00  to  put  a  man  away  when  he  is  poor; 
where  the  government  pays  the  army  officer's 
widow  $5,000  and  the  poor  private  who  faced  the 
shell  $144.00,  with  insinuations  that  he  is  a  gov- 
ernment pauper  and  a  burden  because  he  lives. 
Where  to  be  virtuous  is  to  be  lonesome,  and  to 
be  honest  is  to  be  a  crank ;  where  we  sit  on  the 
safety  valve  of  conscience  and  throw  wide  open 
the  throttle  of  energy;  where  gold  is  worshiped 
and  God  is  used  as  a  waste  basket  for  our  better 
thoughts  and  good  resolutions ;  where  we  pay 
$15.00  for  a  dog  and  15  cents  a  dozen  to  a  poor 
woman  for  making  shirts  ;  where  we  teach  the  un- 
tutored Indian  the  way  to  eternal  life,  and  kill 
him  with  the  bad  booze  ;  where  we  put  a  man  in 
prison  for  stealing  a  loaf  of  bread  and  in  congress 
for  stealing  a  bank  or  a  railroad ;  where  check 
books  and  sin  walk  in  broad  daylight,  justice  is 
asleep,  crime  runs  amuck,  corruption  permeates 
our  social  fabric  and  Satan  laughs  at  every  cor- 
ner. Come  to  us,  Agui.  We  have  the  grandest 
aggregation  of  good  things,  soft  things  and  hard 
things  of  all  kinds,  varieties  and  colors  ever  ex- 


198  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

hibited  under  one  big  tent.  Send  your  delega- 
tion and  we  will  prove  all  these  assertions  for 
truths. — Pocahontas  Sun,  Kansas. 


Workingmen,  when  will  you  as  a  class  awaken 
to  your  wrongs,  awaken  to  your  rights?  You 
suffer — you,  your  wives  and  children.  In  their 
play  time  your  little  ones  are  robbed  of  their 
sunshine — of  the  possibilities,  the  probabilities. 
They  are  starved,  stunted,  and  sent  out  to  earn 
their  living  in  an  immature  state.  The  sun  shines  ; 
the  birds  sing ;  the  flowers  bloom ;  but  the  chil- 
dren— ah,  what  of  them?  Are  you  men  and 
women?  Can  I  touch  the  chord  of  humanism 
that  will  nerve  the  nerveless — make  loyal  the  dis- 
loyal and  arouse  a  truer  manhood  and  woman- 
hood? You  see  around  you  cynical  selfishness, 
grandeur  and  squalor,  luxury  and  penury;  the 
idle,  well-fed,  well-clothed  shirking  honest  work 
by  exploiting  the  labor  of  other  people,  while 
the  honest  worker  cringes,  crawls  half-fed,  half- 
clothed — dying  before  his  time,  his  brain  dor- 
mant, his  better  nature  undeveloped,  suffering 
injustice,  crucified  daily,  because  he  refuses  to 
use  the  power  he  possesses.  The  splendor  of  the 
present  is  not  yours  to  enjoy;  in  the  march  of 
civilization  you  are  not  counted ;  in  the  progress 
of  the  world  you  form  no  part  except  as  beast  of 
burden.  When  will  you  reverse  this?  What  a 
grand  word  liberty  is!  The  congress  of  all  hu- 
man hearts  is  expressed  in  it.  It  breathes  the 
impulse  and  eternal  hope  of  all  the  legions  of 
men  who  lived  above  the  lives  of  beasts  and  in 


AN    INVITATION  I99 

their  death  gave  testimony  to  the  Brotherhood  of 
Man.  And  yet,  as  everlasting  differentiation  is 
necessary  to  intellectual  progress,  he  who  takes 
the  word  upon  his  lips  must  reply  to  the  stern 
question,  "Whose  liberty,  sir?"  Your  liberty. 
My  liberty.  Do  you  mean  the  liberty  of  man- 
kind? What  may  the  demarkations  of  your  lib- 
erty be?  Well-behaved  convicts  have  the  liberty 
of  their  prison.  , 

Friends,  you  who  represent  the  dignity  of  the 
United  States,  whose  progress  has  placed  us  in 
the  foremost  ranks  of  our  contemporaries ;  whose 
sons  of  industry  and  toil  mark  the  highest  alti- 
tude of  mechanical  skill  and  human  endeavor ;  a 
country  whose  gates  invite  the  hardy  miner  as 
well  as  the  most  skillful  artisan,  and  who  still 
with  onward  strides  extends  her  arms  to  enfold 
the  progressive  care  of  the  age.  Her  sons  in 
whose  firm  step  and  hearty  grip  we  behold  the 
descendants  of  pioneer  days,  men  resolute  and 
bold,  with  freedom  of  thought  as  free  as  the 
echoes  that  leap  from  state  to  state,  whose  daugh- 
ters, endowed  with  the  Spartan  spirit  of  old.  up- 
hold with  unstrained  effort  the  ideal  of  American 
womanhood,  and  whose  inspiring  thoughts  of  a 
continual  advancement  will  some  day  roll  their 
fame  from  shore  to  shore.  Friends,  shall  it  be 
said  that  you  who  gave  birth  to  this  giant  of  in- 
dustry, whose  left  arm  extends  into  the  dark  re- 
cesses of  the  earth,  dragging  forth  her  hidden 
hoards  to  enrich  yourselves  and  posterity,  while 
the  right  sweeps  over  the  ripening  plains  deep 
into  the  forest  dells  beyond — shall  it  be  said  that 


200  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

you  have  forgotten  your  greatness?  Shall  the 
feeling  of  injustice  find  a  harbor  in  your  brawny 
breasts?  Shall  your  minds  foster  one  solitary 
cloud  in  the  clear  horizon  of  thought  to  engen- 
der a  future  storm  ?  Shall  it  be  said  that  the  city 
of  Washington  was  stifled  with  thistles  and 
thorns,  which  you  as  citizens  of  the  Common- 
wealth placed  there  through  one  unjust  ''Act?'* 
Friend,  such  a  thing  can  never  be.  You  your- 
self realize  this,  that  the  greatness  of  a  community 
finds  its  support  in  the  unity  and  honesty  of  its 
members.  Cast  this  aside  and  you  expose  your 
nakedness  to  a  laughing  world.  Judea,  Babylonia, 
the  great  Roman  Empire,  fell  with  a  howl  that 
has  resounded  through  centuries,  and  they  fell 
because  of  their  corrupted  institutions.  Could  we 
look  back  upon  the  first  seed  of  injustice  sown 
among  their  citizens  we  would  no  doubt  marvel 
at  the  dreadful  result.  From  small  beginnings 
we  have  great  results,  be  they  good  or  bad ;  be  it 
a  lighted  match  in  a  grain  field  or  the  planting 
of  an  acorn  by  the  wayside — all  tend  forward  in 
accordance  with  the  evolutionary  laws  of  cause 
and  effect.  The  development  and  suppression  of 
many  lies  within  the  powers  of  man  in  his  domes- 
tic, social,  and  judicial  relations  with  each  other; 
individual  responsibility  does  not  end  with  his 
departure,  but  extends  beyond  even  into  the  third 
generation.  Your  thought,  your  action,  your 
life,  be  they  good,  bad  or  indifferent,  are  stereo- 
typed for  a  future  generation.  Remember,  ''the 
evil  men  do  live  after  them ;  the  good  is  often 
interred  with  their  bones,"     The  youth  of  the 


AN   INVITATION  201 

world  is  prone  to  evil,  as  susceptible  as  the  sap- 
ling that  bends  to  each  passing  gust.  Whether  it 
will  weather  the  storms  of  time  and  become  as 
sturdy  as  the  oak  at  its  side  depends  much  upon 
the  soil  in  which  it  was  planted,  its  sheltered  po- 
sition and  the  inherited  soundness  of  its  seed. 

Friend,  why  do  I  use  this  form  of  speech?  I 
will  tell  you ;  it  is  to  keep  in  touch  with  your  own 
thoughts.  I  am  no  orator.  I  only  tell  you  that 
which  you  yourselves  know. 

A  plain,  blunt  man  who  knows  his  hardships 
and  loves  that  inherited  birthright  of  liberty  as  in- 
stituted by  our  progenitors.  That  its  inspiring 
tide  courses  through  my  blood  and  calls  my  fac- 
ulties to  battle  for  its  defense  is  nothing  wonder- 
ful. The  dearest  gift  that  our  Great  God  has 
given  to  man  is  at  stake ;  Liberty,  that  which  you 
prize  above  all  earthly  possessions,  in  the  attain- 
ment of  which  a  generation  of  our  forefathers  fil- 
tered out  their  pioneer  blood  to  enrich  the  field  of 
thought,  the  pastures  of  unity  and  the  soil  of 
progress  of  future  prosperity. 

Friend,  our  years  are  numbered,  they  are  but 
a  few  at  best :  our  passage  hence  will  soon  take 
place.  We  shall  tread  that  dusty  road  of  death, 
but  while  life  remains  I  should  like  to  live  it  pro- 
gressively onward  and  upward.  It  is  the  shoul- 
der at  the  wheel  that  lightens  the  load,  so  each 
cfTort  made  contributes  to  the  welfare  of  the 
whole.  That  invigorating  essence.  Liberty,  is  the 
elixir  of  life ;  all  seek  for  it.  There  is  a  constant 
struggle  for  it,  individually  and  collectively,  both 
in  the  plant  and  animal  kingdom.     The  potato 


202  CAPITAL  AND  LABOR 

vine  creepino^  toward  the  opening  along  the  cel- 
lar floor  seeks  it,  as  does  the  caged  bird  that 
bruises  his  wings  against  the  bars  of  his  prison. 
It  is  the  vital  essence  of  their  existence,  the  pro- 
lific soil  of  regeneration  and  plan  of  active  con- 
tentment, wherein  organic  life  develops  its  ma- 
turity. Exlude  them  from  this,  and  you  will  soon 
find  degeneration  sets  in. 

The  wise  man  builds  not  his  house  upon  the 
sand,  but  upon  a  firm  foundation.  There  is  no 
foundation  to  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
stock-jobbing  parties,  and  this  fact  is  being  felt 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
So,  all  this  talk  is  unnecessary,  you  have  followed 
the  entire  proceeding  of  this  work,  the  power  of 
reason  is  yours ;  to  render  judgment  is  yours ;  let 
me  close  with  these  words:  If  you  want  to  see 
a  truer  and  nobler  epoch  appear  upon  this  old 
planet  for  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  and  God,  take 
that  true  and  never-dying  cause  of  Socialism  to 
heart. 

W^HAT  CAN   I  DO  FOR  THE  CAUSE? 

You  can  vote  the  Socialist  ticket.  You  can 
subscribe  for  and  read  a  Socialist  paper.  You 
can  join  the  local  organization  of  the  party.  You 
can  join  the  trade  union  of  your  craft  and  help 
fight  its  battles.  You  can  talk  Socialism  to  the 
members  of  your  Union,  and  as  a  good  Unionist 
you  will  command  their  respect.  You  can  buy 
Socialist  books  and  pamphlets,  read  and  study 
them,  and  then  lend  or  give  them  to  your  fellow 
workers.    You  can  distribute  leaflets  and  papers 


AN  INVITATION 


203 


issued  by  the  party  and  make  constant  efforts  to 
get  new  subscribers  for  the  papers  that  repre- 
sent your  class  interests.  And  if  you  do  these 
things  you  will  feel  amply  repaid  by  the  growth 
of  Socialism  around  you ;  you  will  feel  that  your 
time  has  been  well  spent ;  you  will  feel  that  your 
money  has  been  wisely  invested ;  you  will  know 
that  you  have  brought  nearer  the  dawn  of  free- 
dom for  yourself,  your  wife  and  children,  and 
your  toiling  comrades.    SET  TO  WORK. 


STANDARD  SOCIALIST  SERIES 

Volumes  of  uniform  size,  hand- 
som^ely  bound  in  cloth  and  ynailed 
to  any  add^'ess for  50  cents  each. 

1.  Karl  Marx:  Biographical  Memoirs  by 

Wilhelm  Liebknecht.  Translated  by 
Ernest  Untermann. 

2.  Collectivism  and  industrial  Evolu= 

tion.  By  Emile  Vandervelde, 
Translated  by  Charles  H.  Kerr, 

3.  The  American  Farmer.     By  A.  M. 

Simons. 

4.  The  Last  Days  of  the  Ruskin  Co= 

operative  Association.  By  Isaac 
Broome. 

5.  The  Origin  of  the  Family,  Private 

Property  and  the  State.  By  Fred- 
erick Engels.  Translated  by  Ernest 
Untermann. 

6.  The  Social  Revolution.     By  Karl 

Kautsky.  Translated  by  A.  M.  and 
May  Wood  Simons.     (In  press.) 

7.  A    History  of  the  German  Social 

Democracy.  By  Paul  Kampff- 
meyer.  Translated  by  Ernest  Un- 
termann.    (In  press.) 


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